


Interpreting the Will of the Gods 1/2

by pollybywater



Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-04
Updated: 2011-02-04
Packaged: 2017-10-17 21:45:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 41,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/181477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pollybywater/pseuds/pollybywater
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I have no idea how to summarize this, tbh.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Interpreting the Will of the Gods 1/2

  
Title: Interpreting the Will of the Gods (aka 'The Ascended Atlantis' fic) 1/2  
Fandom(s): SG-1/SGA  
Rating: Adults only, like whoa, seriously. Minors be gone.  
Category: mostly slash, but het and femme too.  
Pairings: hoo, brother. Who isn't involved? There's Jack/Daniel, Daniel/Rodney, Daniel/Rodney/John, John/Rodney, Jack/Daniel/John/Rodney, a little bit of Radek/Lorne/Ronon/Teyla, Daniel/Teal'c, sorta, Sam/Janet, and Weir/Heightmeyer mentioned in passing, plus, there's Atlantis/Teyla/Lorne/Ronon/Radek.  
Word count: 41,000 in part one, part two is around 47,000-ish, so 88,000 or so. You know how I like to run on. *g*

Disclaimer: Plainly I feel like they're mine, but alas, they are not. We all know it.

Warnings: well, obviously, multiple-partner sexin' and lots of it. Some kink, if you consider rimming and felching kinks. Mention of previous rapes and rape-related issues. Ascended sex. Sentient Atlantis. **AU** to canon of last season SG-1 (and the post-series movies), spoilers through 3rd season SGA and **AU** to canon after that, also, ignores SGU entirely.

More warnings: Cracktacular escapism. Don't read it and tell me how unrealistic it all is. I know that. It's meant to be. Angst. Infidelity. Bastardized Latin masquerading as Ancient. Profanity. Lots of dialogue. Multiple POV shifts. And again, lots of sex. It's not particularly Sam or Landry-friendly, either, just FYI. And parts of it could possibly be perceived as blasphemy if one were sensitive about it.

The last warnings (yeah, right, Polly): You know how there are always a couple of fic genres out there that you can't imagine ever possibly writing? Like, not until after entropy swallows the universe? Uh. *cringes* A little genderswapping and de-aging. I know, I was surprised, too.

Notes and Acknowlegments: Ascended sex as a method of filling up those ZedPMs is not an idea original to me, although I'd like to think my take on it is. Additionally, I owe thanks for inspiration to Lady Ra, Belladonna, and many others who write stories that make my mind go "hmm, what if...?"

More notes and another indirect warning (last one, honest): The first paragraph of this story started writing itself in my head way back before Christmas '07, and I ignored it because I don't write SG-1 and I only dabble in SGA for my own amusement. *rolls eyes* Famous last words. Then things happened in my RL that made me want to write fairy tales where beloved characters never die and everybody ends up in happily-ever-after-land. So I started writing and the story is pretty much going wherever it wants to go, la-la-la. Be warned (and not indirectly, at that).

*

  
 _"The ultimate function of prophecy is not to tell the future, but to make it."  
__Joel A. Barker, Tau'ri_

 _'Shown thus to me, this child of the First World, the broken one, the sword forged in death, skin boiled from bone, this then is he, flesh become fire. This is he, the survivor, the transfigured one, this is he who will hew free our living generations. This is he, the opener of the ways, the First One of the Fifth Race. This is he, our ruler, our champion, our judge, our beloved, our peacegiver._

 _'So have I seen him and so I die blessed.' __Benin, Lantean_

~~~

The next time Daniel Jackson de-ascended, he was going to be on Atlantis and to hell with Jack O'Neill. This, Daniel decided after showing up - so to speak - at Jack's D.C. condo and finding Jack in _their_ bed with his ex-wife, the two of them sound asleep in each other's arms.

Daniel had been grateful for his noncorporeality, glad Jack couldn't see his reaction. He felt like he'd been exposed to exploding naquadriah. Again. It hurt that much; like drowning in his own blood, like the skin he didn't currently have was burning and melting from his flesh.

The immense clap of thunder as he left the building was probably a bit unnecessary, he supposed, but he couldn't regret it, hoping rather meanly that he'd frightened them both awake. He didn't hang around to see. Not quickly enough, he left DC for Colorado and stormed through Cheyenne Mountain in full 'glowy' splendor, ignoring everyone who tried to speak to him - including Landry, Teal'c, Sam, and Siler - in favor of opening the iris and activating the stargate with a thought.

The last thing he heard as he poured himself into the event horizon - besides Landry telling the SFs to stand down - was Sam saying to Teal'c that according to the chevrons he was going to the Pegasus galaxy.

"O'Neill will not be pleased," was Teal'c's reply.

Daniel hoped his friends would forgive him for the lightning bolt he hurled over their heads as the last of his energy plopped through the 'gate.

***

"Oh, boy. What the hell did Jack do now?" Sam whispered under her breath as she and Teal'c straightened from having ducked.

"Perhaps you should inform O'Neill of DanielJackson's irate departure through the Stargate, SamanthaCarter."

"Yeah, thanks for that, Teal'c."

***

"Jack?" Sara tried to say from underneath Jack's hand. Jack had grabbed her off the bed and pulled her to the floor, duvet and all, when that massive clap of thunder had shaken the building. He'd covered her before the vibrations ended.

She'd awakened shrieking. The urge to do it again wasn't abated when she realized Jack had a gun in his other hand. Illuminated by the light from the half-open bathroom door, he was looking a little wild-eyed as he scanned the room.

Her ex-husband felt pretty fucking fantastic lying on top of her, a reminder she just didn't need, especially since he seemed completely unaffected by having her under him.

"Jack, it was only thunder. Loud thunder, but just thunder. You can let me up, now," she mumbled into his rather clammy palm. "Jack, let me go, please."

It still took him a moment. He sucked in a deep breath and moved off her, smoothly sliding the gun under the bedside table before untangling her from the bedcover.

"I'm sorry, honey," he said, helping her sit. "Did I hurt you?"

"No, I'm all right. Is it storming?"

Jack rose and went to the side of the window, peering out through a small gap in the drapes, moving so covertly - so naturally, so automatically - that Sara's breath froze in her throat. A pale sliver of moonlight washed over Jack's face, limning every scar and line, glowing where it struck his silvered hair.

Still so handsome, her Jack. Except that his eyes looked lost, black in the dim light.

"Jack? Is it raining?"

"No, it's not raining. Shit." Jack ran his hand over his head and leaned into the wall. "Shit, shit, shit."

"What's wro-" she began, but before she could finish speaking, Jack's phone rang. He practically leaped across the room to grab it off the charger.

"Da- Oh, Carter. What?" Jack's face tightened as he listened, expression going blank and cold. "He did what? Where? Oh, that's just ... peachy. Understood. When's the next- yeah. No, not yet. Thanks, Carter, I'll let you know."

He put down the phone and rubbed his hands over his face, cursing under his breath in the gutter Arabic Sara had only ever heard Jack use during his nightmares.

"Jack? Can you tell me what's wrong?" she asked hopelessly. Jack O'Neill didn't talk. Period. She knew that. It was one of the reasons why she'd divorced him. She couldn't bear the impenetrable silences after Charlie's death. Their home was already too cruelly hushed, too quiet. Too empty.

Jack looked at her with his head cocked to one side, the expression on his face matching her tone.

"Sara, what would you say if I told you that I'm ... living with ... somebody. A man. Which is scary enough, but he isn't exactly one hundred percent human any more, although he was when we ... started ... and he just came home from-" _outer space,_ Sara heard it in her head clear as day "-being out of town ... and he saw us in bed together. And that thunder? That was him. Leaving. Me. Thinking I'm cheating."

After some astonished blinking, Sara walked over to her ex-husband, took his familiar face in her hands, and stared him straight in his beautiful brown eyes. There was nothing in their depths that looked like humor, and while Jack might lie a great deal by omission, he didn't usually verbalize his falsehoods.

No. He wouldn't say something like this unless it was true.

Sara shook her head and set aside the 'not exactly human' part, wondering what that meant but not about to take advantage of Jack’s remarkable candor.

"I'd say ... I guess you'd better make sure he knows this was completely innocent. He could have hung around long enough to talk to you about it."

"Would you have?"

"Probably not," Sara admitted, thinking about what it would have felt like to walk in on Jack in their bed with someone else. "Be prepared to grovel. That always helps."

It was Jack's turn to blink, and Sara was disproportionately pleased when a faint smile crossed his lips and brightened his eyes.

"Ya think?"

"Yeah, I think, O'Neill."

"I've always underestimated you, haven't I, Sara. And you always overestimated me. You and Daniel both."

"Jack." She clapped his cheeks with her hands, firmly enough to get his attention. "You haven't done anything wrong and you can explain everything to him. Does he - does Daniel - love you?"

Given the circumstances, she was already convinced Jack loved Daniel.

"Did we hear the same thunder?" he offered, face flushing as he tried, and failed, to evade her gaze, his eyes still deeply pained.

Sara remembered a Daniel from when that duplicate of her Charlie had appeared. She'd been approaching numb with renewed grief at the time, but she recalled the man she'd so briefly met due to his stellar good looks. Too pretty to be called merely handsome, with silky brown hair and intense blue eyes; if that was Jack's Daniel, no wonder Jack was so afraid of losing him that it had temporarily loosened his tongue.

"Is that the Daniel I met?" she asked to his reluctant nod. "Wow, Jack, he's a babe," she added, just to turn his face more red. It worked.

"Sara!" Jack protested in a scandalized voice, but he was finally relaxing enough to allow a genuine smile. "He really is, you know."

"I'm glad for you, sweetheart," she whispered impulsively, giving him a firm hug. "You deserve to be happy, Jack. Charlie would want us to be happy." She believed that with all her heart and made certain he saw that truth in her eyes.

"I know. Thank you, honey." Jack hugged her back, and while it still felt good to be held against him, to Sara, Jack at last felt like an old, beloved friend instead of the man who'd been lover, husband, and father of her beautiful dead child. She embraced the man in her arms and loved him no less for who he was now.

There was so little time, their lives were so small, their anger and hurt feelings so irrelevant ... but eternity was vast, indeed, demanding to be filled with love, acceptance, and forgiveness.

Especially for herself. Especially for herself, and for her son, for dying by his own reckless hand.

"Are you happy?" she asked urgently, praying it was so. Grief had carved itself in their souls deeply enough, leaving vast canyons that had eventually channeled to her understanding that she and Jack, too, would be dead someday and reunited with their precious baby boy.

"Well, not so much at the moment, no," Jack murmured in her ear with a sad little huffed laugh. Sara gave him an extra hard squeeze then pulled back to catch the misery in his eyes. He did her the honor of letting her see it, then quirked his mouth in a sly grin. "But usually, yeah, we're pretty happy."

"Good."

What a relief that Jack had finally moved on emotionally; no matter whomever - or whatever - he'd chosen, and knowing she could mean what she'd said was a relief all on its own.

"So. How long have you been ... when did you..."

"Turn gay?" he finished for her with a wry smile and she punched him in the upper arm before drawing him to sit down with her on the edge of the bed.

"No, silly. When did you and Daniel ... start?" Sara asked, deliberately echoing Jack's own term, taking his hand and holding it companionably between them.

"Daniel's been my best friend for over a decade. It took me less than half of that to figure out I was in love with him, which I didn't admit to myself until he was ... missing in action, presumed dead ... for a year." Jack's voice thinned with remembered sorrow. "When we got him back, he'd lost his memory. He eventually recovered it but things ... kept happening. I didn't get around to telling him how I felt ... until he jumped me a couple of years ago," he added a little more lightly, making an effort at resolving himself that Sara had to respect.

"Turned out he felt the same way all along," Jack shrugged as he finished, giving her that sideways smile that still made Sara tingly between her thighs.

Allowing herself a few mental images of what her handsome ex-husband must look like having sex with his gorgeous male lover, Sara crossed her knees and smiled innocently back.

"Pretty intelligent guy, I take it," she teased to Jack's grin.

"He's a genius."

"Then he'll understand. Thank you, Jack, and I'm sorry-"

"It's not your fault, honey."

Earlier that afternoon, Sara's plane had slid off a National Airport runway when its landing gear collapsed. Like many on board, she'd been a little banged up by flying carryons and the airline had insisted its passengers be seen in area emergency rooms. Too unnerved to rearrange her connecting flight, Sara had called Jack from the hospital; he was the only person she could think of in DC. He'd picked her up and taken her to his own home instead of the hotel she'd initially requested.

Jack had been a perfect gentleman, giving her his bed, holding her while she wept out her fear then allowing her sleep in his arms when she'd kept jerking awake, feeling like she was falling. His presence had helped enormously.

Oddly enough, Jack falling on her - literally - had somehow neutralized the lingering fright from her plane's near-crash, as if her sense memories had been reprogrammed by Jack's weight, heat, and strength. She hadn't even thought about the accident until now, far too diverted by Jack actually talking to her.

"You should call him!" she encouraged. Jack ducked his head and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Well, it's not exactly that simple."

***

Daniel left the wormhole before reaching Atlantis and let it collapse. It was something he wasn't supposed to be able to do, but Daniel had never been one to limit himself to 'supposed to', and he'd been suddenly struck with the urge to approach the Ancients' City with a bit more anonymity.

Besides, he wanted comfort before officially announcing his presence, and he knew just who he needed to see. The only person he wanted to see.

Not that anybody at the SGC would believe it.

***

As soon as Rodney entered his quarters and thought the door shut, he let his shoulders slump. Dragging himself towards his bunk, he stripped along the way, leaving a pathetic trail of boots and clothes abandoned in his wake, until he could plant his boxer-clad ass on the side of the mattress.

Atlantis was a low harmonic hum in the back of his mind, trying her best to soothe him. He shot her silent _hey, sweetheart, stop worrying_ and _thanks_ and asked her to give him some space; it was something his City did with reluctance and not before giving him a couple of warm mental nudges that inevitably reminded Rodney of his cat butting their faces together.

"Yes, yes, I love you, too. Goodnight, dear."

More or less alone, now, Rodney sighed.

Another craptacular day in an increasingly long string of them. Ever since his near-death/semi-ascension/whatever, Sheppard had been acting weird. Weirder than usual. Losing their 'game' - after discovering it was all too real - had been another blow. Then Carson had died and Sheppard became really distant, reminding Rodney too much of the awful months following his failure with Arcturus, when it had seemed like everybody in the heavens and on earth was pissed off at him. Deservedly so, he supposed, but when was enough enough?

He couldn't determine why Sheppard was avoiding him now, although he suspected he must have somehow let slip how much Sheppard meant to him. He did know he was tired of being the one who kept trying to change things. Tired of trying to change himself to suit Sheppard's mood du jour.

Rodney crawled into his bed, thought the lights off, then planted his face in his pillow, determined to dream of better days.

When he awakened, Daniel Jackson was in bed with him.

Daniel Jackson was glowing. And naked.

***

"Daniel? Sweetheart? Not that I'm not happy to see you, but what's going on? Die again?"

"Shut up, Sea Lord, and give us a little kiss." Daniel smacked his lips at his friend, honestly delighted to see him again.

"I told you not to call me that, you incandescent pain in the ass. What are you doing here?" Rodney grumbled, but brushed his mouth over Daniel's temple and pulled him into a strong hug. Grounded, Daniel let matter and spirit settle into his physical form, eventually putting his own arms around Rodney and returning the embrace, heedless of his nudity.

"I left Jack, thought I'd come see you. Besides, I'd rather be on Atlantis, and since I'm ascended, why shouldn't I be where I want? I am the one who found her. Again."

"You left Jack? You mean- Wait, you were- you descended? Just now? Here?"

"I think I prefer de-ascended. It’s more precise. And I can pretty much go either direction at will since the last battle with the Ori," Daniel confessed, pushing his face into Rodney's warm neck. Rodney's grip on him tightened appreciably, big hands splayed firmly over Daniel's bare back, and Daniel allowed himself a profound sigh. "Can we not talk about Jack?"

"Hey, you're finally naked in my arms. We don't have to talk at all," Rodney assured him comfortably, moving his head back so he could grace Daniel with an exaggerated leer. The attempt was ruined by his subsequent wide yawn. "Sorry, darling, it's not you, it's me."

Daniel felt closer to smiling than he'd hoped to get this day.

"Thanks, Rodney."

Rodney had caught him cry- with his eyes watering -in front of Jack's stasis chamber in Antarctica late one night and had given him a big awkward hug and an equally awkward offer of comfort sex. Daniel had known Rodney - everyone at Stargate Command knew Doctor Rodney McKay - but that night saw the beginning of genuine friendship between them.

Daniel had ended up spending a lot of cold nights curled up with Rodney before Rodney left for Atlantis. They hadn't become lovers, although not from lack of interest on either of their parts. Daniel had been in love with Jack and despite being tempted, remained resignedly faithful to his then-unrequited emotions. Rodney accepted his refusal, but continued to tease him with outrageously sappy pet names and come-ons which he'd turn aside with a quip or cliche. They'd made it their game, something to make each other smile.

It occurred to Daniel that he might have done a lot of things differently if he'd known then that it would take so long for him and Jack to finally become lovers. Or if he'd known that their relationship would end up finally falling apart in a clap of thunder. Or if he'd-

'Or if' was as useless as 'what if'.

Daniel supposed he should have learned after Kerry Johnson that Jack didn't feel the same way he did about fidelity. Jack had later claimed to be in love with Daniel even then; something Daniel had always doubted could actually be true. He'd excused Jack anyway, let Jack convince him it was a last-gasp heterosexual affair before admitting it was Daniel he really wanted, Daniel with whom he'd live happily gay for the rest of their lives.

Well. Hadn't he been wrong, wrong, wrong, as Rodney would say. Worse than wrong, stupid. 'Happily gay' was never going to happen where he and Jack O'Neill were concerned. He'd always known Jack still loved his ex-wife, and Jack had so many hang-ups about being with him - not to mention Jack's issues with Daniel's ascensions - and there was no more help for any of it. Not now.

Sighing again, Daniel cursed his stinging eyes, and asked the City - whose presence he'd sensed since his arrival - to lock Rodney's door and darken the windows.

If he could just sleep through this day, when he awakened, what happened would be in the past. Yesterday's news. He'd be stronger.

"Take as long as you need, Daniel. Whatever you need," Rodney whispered, making him wonder how long he'd been speaking out loud. "In fact..."

Rodney rolled away from Daniel. Grunting a protest, Daniel watched Rodney grab an open laptop off the bedside table before rolling back, balancing the laptop over their thighs and waking it from sleep mode. Eventually, he pulled up an email program.

"Here. Be my other hand."

"What?"

"Come on, come on. I'll dictate." Rodney waited until Daniel had his fingers over his half of the keyboard then opened 'compose' and started adding email recipients. "Elizabeth, Sheppard, Radek, Teyla, Ronon, Lorne and assorted department heads ... hmm, that should do it. And for a subject line ... I am - come on, type your half of the letters - I am taking a mental health day, period. Rejoice. Period. And the body of the letter. Begin. Do not bother me unless the Wraith invade, period. Period. No, no, no." Rodney reached over his hand and backspaced furiously. "The word _and_ the exclamation point, O Master Linguist. Resume. Sincerely, Dr. M. Rodney McKay, PhD, PhD, PhD. Now, send."

"You're using the M! Good for you, Sea Lord of Rhodni's island. The Sea Lord of Atlantis," Daniel couldn't resist teasing his friend again about the etymology of his first and middle names; it was something he'd been doing since he'd found out Rodney's first name was Meredith. Daniel had actually found the etymology of Rodney's names unbelievably apt considering where Rodney had ended up, and that was before learning about certain Ancient prophecies. "Will that be enough to keep you with me in bed all day?"

Amused, Daniel watched Rodney blush before Rodney turned away to replace the laptop on the table.

This time Daniel let himself notice the muscular flex of Rodney's broad shoulders and back. Strong lats tapered to a sweet lumbar curve that enhanced the perfect convexity of Rodney's regrettably cloth-covered ass. Years of field work had toughened and toned Rodney's body, making him even more appealing, but his skin was still fine and pale and beckoning.

"Nice. You look good, Rodney," Daniel commented truthfully, stroking the line of Rodney's spine to the waist of his boxers. Rodney bobbled the laptop but managed to keep it from hitting the floor. Leaving it on the table, Rodney flopped back over so quickly he startled Daniel, who jumped backwards and almost tumbled off the bunk.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Rodney challenged, grabbing Daniel and preventing his fall. Daniel willingly fell forward into Rodney instead, plastering himself to Rodney from thighs to chest, relishing Rodney's sheer solid physicality, big callused hands on his arms, warm scratch of body hair against his skin, scents of sweat, sleep, and musk that rose from Rodney's body.

This was what he'd needed. Reconnection with his humanity after spending the last two weeks ascended. What he'd wanted- needed from Jack-

Daniel immediately struck down that line of thought in favor of the man holding him now. This couldn't be about getting revenge on Jack, nor was there any way Daniel could categorize this as _settling_ for Rodney - Meredith Rodney McKay wasn't some kind of consolation prize; he was so much more than that. Even now, Rodney's internal ties to his City blazed in Daniel's ascended perception ... ties that Daniel shared with him, whether Rodney fully realized them or not.

No, this was about how beautiful he found his friend's heart, soul, and mind. How much he needed to feel loved. Cared for. Wanted.

He was so tired of feeling tolerated at best.

Rodney must have seen some of that in his face, because Rodney went red, his eyes became bright, and the fingers that were digging into Daniel's upper arm loosened their grip, gliding up to the back of his neck as Rodney slid one heavy thigh between his.

It felt so good. It felt so _human._ So _real._

"Rodney?"

"Daniel."

Daniel went hard so fast he gasped, lightheaded when his erection prodded Rodney's groin, separated from skin only by the thin material of Rodney's boxers. Groaning, Daniel pushed Rodney to his back and rolled onto him, until they lay face to face, breath to breath, eye to eye.

"I know what I'm doing," he managed, his own hands busy on Rodney's satin smooth skin, stroking everywhere he could reach, needing to glut his body on the physical sensations after spending so long a time without them. Rodney was hard, too, cock rutting against Daniel's with each subtle writhe of Rodney's hips. "Please, Rodney? I need-"

"Daniel. Sweetheart. Darling. Angel. Whatever you need. Haven't I already said that? Just. Don't do something you'll regret," Rodney scolded fondly, crooked mouth tilted in a rueful 'I can't believe I'm saying this to you' smile.

Daniel felt his heart swell with affection, wishing the entire universe could appreciate the generous and loving spirit that lay hidden behind Rodney's masks and walls.

"I could never regret you," Daniel promised. "But what about you? I know you and Shep-"

"We don't. We aren't. Ever. He isn't. Besides, he's barely speaking to me right now and I don't even know why." Rodney lifted the hand that had been sliding towards Daniel's ass and waved it around. Daniel missed it at once. Reaching behind him, he caught Rodney's fingers and pulled that hand back down to his skin, pushily moving it towards his cleft.

"His loss, the dumbass." Closing his eyes, Daniel lowered his mouth to Rodney's, tongue stroking over and between Rodney's lips. "Fuck me?"

"Oh, my god, yes. Do you know how long I've wanted to hear you say that? Say it again."

Ah, there was something he didn't hear very often. Daniel smiled into another kiss, pleased when Rodney smiled back.

"Fuck me. Fuck me hard," Daniel breathed the words over the slant of Rodney's mouth. "I want you, Rodney. I want you to fuck me. It's the first time for this particular body, you know."

"Oh, my god," Rodney repeated like a prayer for strength, surging up and turning Daniel underneath him in an impressive show of power and coordination ... reminding Daniel again that Rodney McKay was on Atlantis' premier 'gate team, a scientist become warrior, just like him.

Just like him.

Feeling wonderfully taken over and handled, Daniel contentedly lay sprawled on his back while Rodney knelt up between his legs, finally getting rid of those damnable boxers.

Rodney's thick cock sprang free, pointing right at him, ruddy, demanding, and leaking. Mouth watering, Daniel licked his dry lips and held out imploring hands.

"Let me taste you."

"Me first," Rodney insisted, hands on Daniel's inner thighs, pushing, curling Daniel up and bending over him. By the time Daniel realized what Rodney was about to do, Rodney was doing it, all _wet hot god!_ tongue up his body's virgin ass, stroking him open and kissing him deep, fucking Daniel's self-control into smithereens.

Electrified by the pleasure in this heretofore unknown act, Daniel threw his head back and howled, 'hearing' Rodney think _soundproofing! soundproofing!_ at Atlantis while never stopping what he was doing to Daniel. Sharp teeth nibbled on the rim of his greedy hole when that tongue wasn't spearing into him, prompting Daniel to grab the backs of his knees and beg for more in some language even he couldn't identify.

Then thumbs were prying him open for Rodney's equally greedy tongue and it was too late, too much, too good, too different. He was coming coming coming cock untouched ... still coming ... last spasms seizing even stronger when Rodney breached him - cock slick with Daniel's own ejaculate - and nailed his prostate on the first thrust.

***

Jack watched Sara doze - they'd relocated to the sofa in the den and he wished he'd put her there to begin with - while he tried not to wonder what Daniel must be thinking.

Thing was, _he knew Daniel._ He knew Daniel would have been waiting for this. Daniel was always waiting for the other shoe to drop, the axe to fall. He knew Daniel had never really believed Jack was into him for life. Daniel had always expected something - or someone - would come along and rip them apart. He'd gone into it already anticipating the end, not that he'd ever said anything like that to Jack. He didn't have to. Jack knew.

It killed Jack that Daniel would assume he'd been right all along. Jack wasn't really in love with him. Jack couldn't be faithful. Jack couldn't give up women. Jack couldn't be trusted.

There wasn't much of a foundation. After all, Jack had said that himself, hadn't he?

Part of him wanted to be angry with Daniel for gating to the wrong conclusion without even giving him the benefit of the doubt, but he knew who was at fault here. Aside from his thoughtlessness in putting Sara in his and Daniel's bed, he should have loved Daniel better all along, so Daniel would have never had a reason to doubt his commitment.

Daniel may have seemed content, but how could he have forgotten that Daniel was always, _always_ prepared to leave?

How many times did he have to lose Daniel before he learned?

Daniel must be so hurt.

Jack got up and padded barefoot into their bedroom, going to the expensive Henein painting-on-papyrus he'd bought Daniel for their last Christmas. After carefully taking it down, he opened the wall safe behind and pulled out the little communication stone Thor had gifted him with the last time the SGC had helped save the Asgard from total extinction.

It was about time he called in some markers, pulled his head out of his ass, and made Daniel believe that nothing - not his career, not the SGC, not Homeworld Security nor his life on earth - _nothing_ was more important to Jack O'Neill than Daniel Jackson.

If Danny wanted to be on Atlantis, then that's where they'd be.

***

"When you ascended you became a true heir to this City. Atlantis loves you."

"Daniel ... I didn't exactly ascend."

"Sure you did, in those moments when you chose to stay in your body and told Doctor Beckett how to save you. You just didn't ... go glowy." Daniel grimaced at the term. "You can do it again someday. You could do it now."

"You're joking."

"Not about this. Never about you, Rodney. Can't you feel it in your connection to Atlantis? What, you think you're not good enough for ascension? You don't have to be a 'good person', whatever that is. The fact that a Goa'uld ascended should demonstrate that."

"I thought Anubis was half-ascended."

"He was cast out and more correctly, half-de-ascended. He didn't _not_ ascend ... once you've made that leap, it can't be completely taken away from you. You can't unlearn the learned."

"You remembered how."

"The second time I ascended I remembered everything that happened the first time. By the time Oma, Anubis, Merlin, the Priors, and the Ori were done with me... let's just say it's a good thing I've already been inoculated against wanting absolute power."

"Huh. That's ... really kinda hot. Think about it. You could be King Daniel of the Tau'ri. I'll be your loyal consort, Meredith of Atlantis, willing to submit to your every desire, Your Highness."

After a moment's taken aback silence, Daniel started snickering. There were depths of irony in Rodney's words that Rodney couldn't appreciate - yet.

"Aw, come on! It's hot!" Rodney insisted, but he was laughing, too.

***

"So. Not a power drain."

"That is correct, Colonel. It is like the City is receiving extra energy from an unidentified source."

"Zelenka, where's McKay? What does he say?"

"Ah. Rodney is taking the day off. You should have an email. We are not to disturb him for less than the Wraith."

"He's what? With this weird power thing going on? You should have called him anyway!"

"Doctor Weir said no. It's not a bad thing, Colonel. Power utilization is at peak efficiency. The City, she hums."

"That's ... very poetic, Radek."

"I thought so. I am surprised you do not hear her."

"Hmph!" John Sheppard said, or something close to it. "Keep me posted," he ordered. Determined not to touch the subject of why Atlantis wasn't currently 'speaking' to him and hoping it wasn't relevant, he ignored Radek Zelenka's rather speculative curiosity and left the labs at speed. Heading for Rodney's quarters, he tried not to be glad for an excuse to see what Rodney McKay was doing with actual leisure time.

John was sure Rodney would want to hear about this excess energy more than he'd want a day off, anyway.

***

 _"Imperator John Sheppard requests entrance, my Meredith,"_ a silvery voice announced inside Rodney's mind just as Daniel bottomed out inside him, holding so suddenly still that he knew Daniel had heard it, too.

"Well. That's new," he rasped, hands slipping a bit on the wall.

"You're telling me," Daniel said, slowly withdrawing for a second long, luxurious thrust. "Ah, hey, Atlantis, let him know we're busy, please. This is so goddamn good, Rodney. So good to make love."

Squirming into the wonderful pressure and burn of Daniel's cock piercing his ass, Rodney groaned out his agreement, wondering vaguely if O'Neill never let Daniel top. O'Neill never rimmed Daniel, either, judging from the way Daniel had had lost it earlier.

Still, Rodney really couldn't spare the brain cells to think about that, Atlantis, or anything else, including John Sheppard. Not when Daniel was sucking little wet kisses over Rodney's back, making him tingle all the way down to his balls. Not when curious fingers were pinching his nipples ... rubbing his tummy ... cradling his cock...

"Daniel, god, Daniel, please. Please, oh, please. Harder. Fuck me harder."

"Say it again. Beg me," Daniel ordered with an unrestrained lunge that put Rodney's face against the wall and made his knees weak.

"My god yes, just like that. Please, Daniel, fuck me hard just like that," Rodney complied, not even recognizing the sound of his own voice. Daniel shoved him up against the bathroom wall and pressed into him, almost lifting him off his toes.

Rodney loved it. Alpha Daniel, who knew? Apparently not that stupid fuck Jerk O'Neill. His loss, Rodney's gain, gain, gain. Rodney laughed, the sound rumbling out of him involuntarily, fueled on a silent _I so win!_ and his delight in the moment's rough joy.

"Oh, please, King Daniel, take pity on your unworthy servant and let me come," he gasped through his helpless chuckles, even more elated when he felt Daniel shuddering against him, heard Daniel giggling like Daniel never ever did, laughing and coming and lighting off his ear-ringing, mind-blinding climax.

***

Staggering away from Rodney's quarters and into his own, John waited until his door closed and then slid down it to sit on the floor, thoughts still limited to _oh my god oh my god_ as his brain stalled on what he'd witnessed.

What Atlantis had _shown_ him, pouring images directly into his head as he stood outside Rodney's door, so vividly it felt like he was right beside them, seeing and hearing everything. Everything.

 _Oh my god oh my god_ Rodney and Daniel Jackson had been fucking and fucking _glowing,_ light pouring out of them, their edges blurring like they were only halfway in the world...

No. No way was Rodney McKay leaving him - Atlantis - for ascension. Not again. And not with Daniel Jackson. No way in hell.

Finding strength he didn't know he had, John dragged himself up on his feet, made an about-face, and had marched back out into the corridor before it occurred to him to directly ask Atlantis "what the fuck?"

 _"So might you have been with my Meredith Rodney McKay, my Imperator John Sheppard. Your opportunity was long."_ And squandered, John felt clearly, even though Atlantis didn't verbalize that word. _"My Meredith was heartsore before the Agapitos Daan came to him."_

"Oh, now you're talking? And what's with the titles?" John demanded, livid when he got the definite impression Atlantis was warning him off. He forgot to remember he was standing in the middle of a public corridor; temper too riled to have quite grasped that his City really was speaking words voiced inside his head. Actual words.

"Sir? Who are you talking to?"

"Shit!" he yelled, having had it nearly scared out of him by his 2IC. "Damnit, Lorne!"

"Sorry, Sir, but, who-"

"The City, the City is talking," John explained impatiently, correctly interpreting Lorne's doubtful stare. "You have the gene. Don't you hear her?" he said, implying it must be Lorne's problem if he didn't.

"Not ... in words, no ... but the old girl sure is singing today," Lorne replied very slowly, startling John when he patted the nearby wall. "She's speaking to you in words, Colonel?"

"I'm not crazy, Lorne."

"Kinda depends on what she's telling you to do, Sir," Lorne pointed out, a bit too straight-faced to be totally serious. John shook his head, amused despite himself.

"Asshole," he declared to Lorne's mostly-hidden grin, but forgot what he was going to say next when Radek came down the hall brandishing an LSD, Teyla beside him. "Um, what-"

"Power readings. The excess power comes from this section," Zelenka informed them. "Thank you for meeting me here, Major Lorne."

"No problem, Doctor Zelenka, but why here? It doesn't make-"

"Any sense?" John finished for Lorne, sighing. He got it, now, and yeah, it made sense to him. Perfect sense. "And Teyla? You're here because-?"

She gave him one of those annoyingly serene smiles.

"How is it said among your legendary Jedi? I sense a disturbance in the Force. Not Wraith," she added quickly. "It is most ... positive. When I met Doctor Zelenka in the corridor we discovered-"

"Right. Got it. Coming from the same general area," John concluded with a mental 'huh', pretty sure he didn't want to tell Teyla what was causing her good vibes. "I should probably tell you Atlantis has ... spoken to me-"

"In words," Lorne added dryly. John ignored his 2IC and went on.

"-and the City has ... notified me ... about what's going on."

John could hear Teyla's eyebrow go up and didn't bother to watch. He cleared his throat, firmed his resolve, and remembered why he'd been coming back to Rodney's quarters in the first place.

"Colonel Sheppard? What _is_ going on?" Elizabeth chose that moment to join them, which just about made John's day complete. Radek handed Lorne the life sign detector, which responded to Lorne's gene by lighting up like a Christmas tree. Zelenka poured over the readings and let out a string of astonished curses in his native language that made Elizabeth's lips twitch.

John said it before Radek could.

"Rodney's not alone. Doctor Jackson is visiting in his ascended form."

"Daniel is here? My, my, I wonder what the general did now," Elizabeth blurted, covering her mouth with her hand a little too late. "You didn't hear that," she added in a mumble, blushing.

Lorne leaned into the wall, scrunching his face up trying not to laugh, while Teyla ducked to hide her own smile. Radek ignored the byplay, still frowning over the LSD, brow furrowed with concern.

John rubbed his hands through his hair and tried to think of some polite way to tell them all to get lost so he could talk Rodney out of ascending.

"Doctor Weir, Colonel Sheppard, these readings ... there is more than one Ascended in Rodney's room."

***

"Ascend with me. I want to show you some things. I'll make sure you get back to your body, I promise. And it will save us from a third degree," Daniel made the offer impulsively as soon as Atlantis warned them of the apparent convention gathering outside Rodney's door.

Daniel didn't want to talk to anyone but Rodney.

"Please?"

"Anything, my Agapitos Daan," Rodney said, smiling again, all warmth and affection and good humor aimed directly at Daniel. "That's what Atlantis is calling you. Agapitos ... beloved? Daan ... more than just a translation from the Hebrew Daniel..."

"You've been reading up," Daniel charged, fiercely delighted to learn Rodney had turned his magnificent intellect toward a 'soft science' subject simply because Daniel had interested him in it. "Daan also means ruler in a Belgian Dutch dialect, my Meredith."

Rodney's smile brightened impossibly. It was a good look for him, making him impossibly beautiful to Daniel's fond eyes. Rodney was so open. So out there, letting it all hang out. Rodney felt like standing in the sun.

Mind drawing unbidden, unfortunate comparisons to Jack's watchful, closed-in silences, Daniel pictured Jack and saw dungeons, mazes, cellars, bars, walls, shields, cave-ins. Coverstones falling. All those places he would never be able to pass through.

He'd given up trying by coming to Rodney; he acknowledged that.

"Rodney. Come with me?"

"Anywhere, Daniel."

They stared into each other's eyes as the boundaries of flesh dissolved, matter became energy, and ascension became the marvellous gift it was intended to be, instead of the eternal curse the Others had made of it.

***

"They're gone." Radek said, stilling trembling hands on the LSD Lorne was still holding. "Rodney is gone. He ascended."

"No," Elizabeth breathed, paling. "He wouldn't just leave us-"

"My Meredith Rodney McKay and the Agapitos Daan Daniel Jackson will resume their corporeal forms on their return to me. They are quite safe and well." The City somehow spoke from the walls, her quiet tones calm, cool, and reassuring.

"Okay. That wasn't just in my head, right?" John asked after a shocked moment, relieved when his voice didn't shake. For a minute there he'd been sure his heart had stopped. "Atlantis? How ... long will they be ... away?" he wondered inanely, thoughts strangled because he couldn't demand what he really needed to know.

 _Tell me Rodney isn't leaving me. Tell me he's okay. Tell me he didn't die to ascend, didn't die without me being there for him, with him. Tell me again he's coming back._

"My Fifth Race Ascendants will return when they return, Imperator John Sheppard," Atlantis said primly, making John feel like his ear had been pinched even while his City gave him a mental hug. "Fear not, citizens. They are in no danger, for their lives least of all. They will return."

That was the second time the City had called him 'Imperator'. He knew enough about the translation to feel both wildly flattered and hugely grateful. Her general. Her commander-in-chief.

"Why haven't you spoken to us before now?" Lorne inquired and John thought it was a good thing one of them had the presence of mind to ask questions about this latest development.

"The capability is enabled by specific conditions, Citizen Evan Lorne."

"What conditions are these?" Teyla asked curiously and John caught himself baring his teeth.

"Willing ecstatic ascension, Citizen Teyla Emmagan."

John was pretty sure that was worth both eyebrows and he wasn't wrong.

***

The first place they stopped was Proculus. Rodney would have assumed he was beyond surprise, but apparently not. Chaya met them in her ascended form, startled to see him but somehow pleased all the same. Pleased _for_ him, a notion that boggled Rodney's already boggled mind, fully caught up as he was in trying to internalize what he was learning.

There was so _much._

"Athar, your sentence is lifted," Daniel the judge - Daniel the _king_ \- declared, ascended form as radiant to Rodney as he'd always imagined the heart of a nuclear explosion must be. He had a sense of Chaya turning to Daniel and going to nonexistent knees, her outstretched hands conveying boundless gratitude.

 _"You are the Regestere Charus, whose coming was foretold. The sword forged in death which will cut free our living descendents, making them inheritors of galaxies. The Regestere Charus, the Beloved Ruler, the First One of the Fifth Race, both flesh and fire, whose existence will again ally all and lead to our next evolutions._

 _"I am honored."_

Chaya smiled when Daniel stroked her cheek and bade her rise. This happened to be about the time Rodney realized they had all three somehow descended - de-ascended - and were currently standing around in a lovely sunny meadow. Stark naked.

"Doctor Daniel Jackson of the Tau'ri," Daniel corrected out loud, offering Chaya his hand, being so unaffected and so utterly Daniel that Rodney wanted to snicker. "The honor is mine, Lady Athar, Guardian of Proculus. You saved your world. Thank you," Daniel said, sliding his palm against Chaya's and bowing elegantly over her hand instead of shaking it.

"Perhaps we may yet save this galaxy, too," Daniel continued and Rodney forgot his self-consciousness in the wake of the words.

"This would be ... permitted?" Chaya asked, beautiful eyes sharp on Daniel's face as if afraid to hope.

Rodney held his breath.

"Let's just say ... policies have changed. Ascended will no longer interfere ... with each other ... unless that other seeks to act without compassion and cause harm. We will protect and preserve the lives in our midst. We will not abandon our descendents as cattle or slaves. These are the laws."

Daniel spoke like he was clothed in robes and carrying a staff ... then he grinned, and the strange still moment was broken.

"Right up your alley, aren't they?" he teased.

Chaya's laughter sounded like a benediction.

***

"You're going to take me to Colorado on a spaceship," Sara reiterated slowly, hoping her tone wasn't as shrill to Jack's ears as it sounded to her own.

"Hey, it's safer than flying commercial. Got your bags? Good. Okay, Thor-"

Everything went white.

"-we're ready."

When Sara's vision cleared, she was standing - someplace else entirely - and a short gray X-Files/Roswell-looking alien was standing in front of her and her luggage, looking at her with huge black eyes.

"Oh, my heavens," she whispered, aware Jack was supporting her elbow while her nervous system debated the wisdom of fainting. Grimly, she took a deep breath and pushed aside the gathering darkness, steeling her spine and ordering her face. Jack watched her a bit warily for a moment, then introduced her. _Introduced_ her. To an _alien._

Okay.

"Supreme Commander Thor of the Asgard, may I present my former wife, Sara O'Neill. Sara, this is my good buddy Thor!"

"Welcome on board the Daniel Jackson, Sara O'Neill. I am pleased to make your acquaintance."

"'The Daniel Jackson'," she mouthed silently, cutting her eyes sideways to look at Jack, who gave her a big cheesy grin. "Thank you ... Commander Thor. Likewise, I'm sure."

"Come 'ere and get a load of this, honey," Jack said, dragging her over to- what did she call it? A window? A porthole? A viewscreen? Wishing she'd watched a little more sci-fi, Sara looked where Jack pointed and caught back a gasp.

Earth hung there below them, mounted in space like a jewel on black velvet, brilliant living colors encased in a fragile bubble of atmosphere. Sara found herself shaking her head, barely able to feature the proof of her eyes.

"Oh, it's beautiful, Jack. It looks so small..."

"Smaller than you know," Jack replied soberly, his gaze shadowed. "We've come so close to losing it."

"This is what you've been doing? Literally saving the world?" The sudden realization sank into her mind as she started to understand what it was her ex-husband had been doing for the Air Force ... and what the stakes were.

"I've had a lot of help. Some of the finest minds of their generation, people braver than fuck and more loyal than dogs. A lot of them laid their lives down for that rock, some more than once. A few of them weren't even born there.

"Thor helps protect us, too. We owe him."

"On the contrary, it is the Asgard who are indebted. Specifically, to you, O'Neill ... as well as Daniel Jackson, Samantha Carter, Hammond of Texas, and Masters Teal'c and Bra’tac of Chulak, of course."

"Did Bra'tac tell you to call Hammond that?"

"Master Bra'tac is a most entertaining raconteur. He speaks of you often, O'Neill."

Jack mugged a frightened grimace and Sara found herself giggling, amazed and amused to discover Jack really did seem to have a friend in the little gray alien.

"Transport may occur at any time."

"Thanks, Thor. Listen, Sara, I'm gonna take a ... road trip ... with Thor here and go track down Daniel. You gonna be okay at home?"

"I'll be fine. I'll say one thing for you, Jack O'Neill. You still know how to show a girl a good time," she said, reaching up to kiss his cheek and squeeze his upper arms. "Thank you for everything."

She stepped back amidst her luggage and took one more look, imprinting the memory. She was standing in a _spaceship_ a few feet from an _alien._

Charlie would have thought it was way cool ... and it really, really was.

"Sara. Thank you, honey."

"Bring Daniel and let's do lunch sometime soon. I'd like to get to know him better." He looked at her dubiously and she gave him a sunny smile, pleased when his regard grew rather suspicious. Jack did better if he had something to wonder about. "At your convenience, Commander Thor. It really was a pleasure meeting you, and thanks for the lift."

"The pleasure has been mine, Sara O'Neill."

Another flash of bright white light, then Sara was in her living room, luggage still stacked neatly beside her. She staggered over to the sofa, threw herself on the cushions with a loud "Whew!" and wondered what to marvel about first.

***

"Listen, Thor, I need a lift to Atlantis. Daniel's there and-"

"O'Neill, what did you do to Daniel Jackson?"

"Gee, buddy, don't beat around the bush."

Thor was giving him the stink eye, Jack just knew it.

"Look, it was completely innocent. Sara had an accident in DC yesterday and was really shaken up so I took her home to rest and Daniel came in from doing his glowy business and now he thinks Sara and I were sleeping together, well, we _were_ sleeping together, but that's all it was, innocent sleeping, only he doesn't know that and he took off for Pegasus through the gate. He never forgave me for not letting him go with Weir's expedition," Jack tacked on irritably.

Thor blinked a few times as he visibly processed all that ... while Jack wondered what the hell was wrong with his mouth and why it kept spilling his guts.

He suspected it was because he hadn't talked enough to Daniel. He really, really hadn't.

"Had you allowed Daniel Jackson to go to Atlantis then, this galaxy would have been lost to the Ori and the Asgard dust. Still, O'Neill, Atlantis is Daniel Jackson's shining city on the hill. I fear persuading him to leave, if that is your intention, may not be as simple as prying a mere pearl from an oyster's shell."

"Thor, I swear, sometimes I don't know you at all," Jack said, taken aback by the Asgard's rather poetic prediction.

"O'Neill, I sometimes wonder if it is Daniel Jackson you do not know."

Jack peered into Thor's grave dark eyes. A chill crawled down his spine, quickly replacing his initial sense of offense. Thor knew something about Daniel Jack didn't know, Jack could tell by Thor's face. Thor knew something Jack wasn't going to like.

"Go ahead, spit it out. Unless, of course, you don't have time-" Jack almost hoped Thor didn't.

"My time is not unlimited, however, neither is it in short supply, and I am willing to accommodate you ... as your 'buddy'." Thor tilted his head and spread his long skinny fingers wide. "Within reason."

"Great. Thanks. Well, then. You were saying?"

Thor cocked his head sideways and gave Jack a long, considering stare, then vanished them in bright white light. They materialized inside the kitchen of the house Daniel kept in the Springs. Jack nearly fell out of his shoes when Thor went to the bottom cupboard where Daniel kept his spirits and pulled out a bottle of Macallan.

"Thor, it's seven o'clock in the morning!"

"As I have heard you say, O'Neill, and, so, therefore?" Thor said, pouring a few fingers of scotch in a glass which he then handed to Jack.

"You have a point." Reconsidering, Jack took a healthy sip. Good stuff, Macallan. "Okay, ya fortified me. What is it you don't want to tell me?"

"Your reference to Daniel Jackson's 'glowy business' seems rather dismissive. Are you troubled by his ascended state?"

"Daniel's not ascended! He's just ... visiting!" Jack slammed back the rest of his drink and then thumped his glass down on the counter hard enough to crack the bottom.

"Ah, I see. 'What we have here is a failure to communicate'."

"Very funny, Thor."

"In fact, it is not, O'Neill."

***

 _"I did this?"_ Rodney asked, horrified as Daniel showed him the gaping black tear in the fabric of space-time where an Ancient outpost named Dorandas had once existed inside a star system that was mostly no more. _"Five-sixths. I said it was only five-sixths. Oh, my god, what have I done?"_

If he'd been depending on his heart to keep him alive, he would have dropped dead, shriven to absent bone with shame and grief.

He felt _damned._

 _"What you've done is created a place to put the Wraith. We can't just kill them. We would be no better than they are. They can hibernate within that little pocket of space and eventually make homes on the planets you gave them._

 _"We'll seal the rift and cage them inside it. We can and we will fix this, Rodney._

 _"And you need to accept that the Ancients bear the larger responsibility for what happened here. They knew when they developed Arcturus this might be the potential outcome."_

Daniel's reassuring arms went around him, pulling him into an embrace Rodney could feel at a molecular level.

 _"So I can just blame them for leaving loaded weapons in the hands of children,"_ Rodney thought a little bitterly and felt Daniel's mental flinch. _"Oh, shit, I'm sorry, Daniel, I forgot about Jack-"_

 _"Shh, shh, I know. Let me ask you something. If that bullet had missed Charlie, do you think Jack would felt any less responsible for the near miss, or loved his son any less for laying hands on the weapon?"_

 _"Of course not- Oh."_ Revelation was a supernova in Rodney's mind as he got the parallel Daniel was making.

 _"You're not damned,"_ Daniel promised. "Okay?"

"Okay." Rodney breathed - really breathed - as they de-ascended together ... once again on Atlantis, who welcomed them with her own sigh of relief.

***

John didn't need Atlantis' silently spoken announcement to tell him Rodney was back - he could feel it all the way down to his bones, which hummed with the City's renewed joy.

But since he was waiting in Rodney's quarters and Rodney wasn't there, it did beg the question of Rodney's current location.

John wasn't sure he really wanted to know.

He'd cleaned up Rodney's room with his own hands, changed the sheets, washed the wall, the floor, did the laundry, all while feeling pissed off for reasons he didn't want to even try and understand. He'd felt driven by some insane urge to get rid of the evidence. Make it like it hadn't happened.

He didn't need to analyze that, did he?

Deep down inside John already accepted what was going on with him. Knew why he'd pulled away after Rodney died, why he'd wanted - needed - excuses to see Rodney even while trying to avoid him, why he'd been avoiding him in the first place, why the idea of Rodney leaving Atlantis with Jackson just made him want to... want to...

What? Puke? Cry and scream and throw things? Punch Jackson right in his perfect face? Kick Jack O'Neill's ass for whatever it was he did to push Jackson right into Rodney's arms? Shake Rodney, kiss the taste of Jackson off him, and say "Mine, mine, mine! Never do this again!"?

All those options worked for him.

He was so fucking screwed.

John finished making Rodney's bunk and sat down near the neatly folded hospital corner, wondering what to do next.

How could he tell Rodney what he was only just figuring out? He was in love, big old epic hearts and flowers love-you-forever love, with Rodney McKay. He was jealous as all hell and he wanted to kick his _own_ ass for not decrypting himself before Doctor Glowy showed up.

It was too late now. Wasn't it?

"Hey, Atlantis? Is Rodney okay?" Is he human again, is what John meant.

He still didn't understand everything Atlantis had tried to explain to them earlier about the first race becoming the Fifth Race according to some moldy old prophecies.

His City sang to him with gentle warmth, filling his mind very slowly with a visual image ... Rodney, looking very human indeed, naked, contentedly asleep with one hand under his face. An equally nude Daniel Jackson was sleeping spooned up behind Rodney, holding him close, their legs entwined, Jackson's elegant hand draped over Rodney's lax dick.

They were stunning together.

John rubbed his chest, wondered vaguely why it ached, and promised himself some forward planning. He'd start acting like Rodney's friend again. He wouldn't mess this up for Rodney, whatever this turned out to be, _and_ he'd still be here when Jackson left to go back to O'Neill, which surely he would.

Yeah.

Rodney was alive, so, no, not too late.

***

"Nope, no way, nyet, negatory, nein and no mas, old buddy, old pal," Jack protested, feeling like Thor was backing him into a corner, even though they hadn't moved from their relative positions. Thor was still watching him across Daniel's kitchen table, looking at Jack like he wanted to pull out hair he didn't have.

The incongruity of seeing that expression on Thor's generally expressionless face struck Jack like a blow, telling him better than words that he needed to be taking Thor seriously right now. But how could he?

How could he not?

"Thor," Jack continued, making an effort at keeping his voice more quiet, "you're telling me all kinds of shit I don't want to hear."

"If a tree falls in a forest, O'Neill, does it make a sound?"

"You should do Vegas. No, really." Jack sighed when Thor merely stared at him. "So, Daniel is not just ascended, he's some new kind of ascended, and not just that, he's... he's...

 _"Daniel?"_

"As I have informed you, Daniel Jackson is the Regestere Charus, whose coming was foretold by the Ancient prophet Benin unknown millions of years ago. As the First One of the Fifth Race, Daniel will lead the Ancients out of extinction, unite the Five Races, and bring peace to our galaxies."

"Daniel?" Jack said again helplessly, shaking his head. "He's- he's _Daniel._ He's not- not-"

"How can you be this deliberately obtuse, O'Neill? You above all must know Daniel Jackson is an exceptional human. Is he not your Chosen One?" Thor made some kind of sound like 'pshah!' and just that fast, they were back on Thor's ship ... and Jack was lying flat on his back on one of Thor's tables, completely immobilized and helpless.

"Hey, Thor, whatcha doing, buddy?" he asked uncertainly as his balls crawled into his belly with a watery cramp of fear.

"Go to sleep, O'Neill. You will not be harmed. When you awaken, all will be clear to you."

Jack barely had time to think "oh, shit" before everything went dark.

***

"Jack's in trouble," Daniel said before coming fully awake, shifting into his ascended form with his second breath. "I've gotta go."

"Wait. I'm coming with you," Rodney declared, efficiently managing his own matter/energy conversion this time. Daniel thought he'd quite like to point that out to his friend and watch his reaction - later - but right now, all he could concentrate on was Jack.

Jack was afraid. Jack was _afraid._ Nothing could terrify Daniel more.

He couldn't wait.

 _"Atlantis. Stargate. Wormhole. Earth."_ Daniel caught bits of the ripple of orders Rodney was aiming at his City, keeping Daniel with him through sheer force of will. Atlantis jumped to obey her Lord, clearing personnel, dialing chevrons, dropping the shield and making ready the gate.

Then they were there, diving into the event horizon and heading for earth.

***

The inside of the Daniel Jackson was filled with ... Daniel Jackson.

Thor was certain had he been a Tau'ri, he would have found that somehow humorous.

He was not a Tau'ri. And Daniel Jackson was not alone.

"I assure you, I mean no harm to O'Neill."

 _"He was afraid. He's unconscious,"_ Daniel Jackson accused, his telepathic voice overloud in Thor's head, which was, he was quite aware, currently rocking backward on the stem of his neck. Fortunately, the range of his visual field was adequate to keeping both Ascended in sight.

The unknown Ascended reached out a glowing tentacle and either comforted or restrained Daniel Jackson, whose agitated brilliance slowly subsided, until before Thor's rather wondering eyes - and the Asgard were not beyond wonder - Daniel Jackson and his companion assumed corporeal, human forms.

"You're standing in the ship he named after you. I think you can give him a chance to explain." Doctor Rodney McKay of Atlantis, for it was surely he - Hermiod had told of him - had Daniel Jackson by one shoulder and was shaking him gently. "Why are we naked again? Why can't we de-ascend with clothes on when we ascend wearing them?"

"We didn't have on any clothes the last time," Daniel Jackson said absently, turning to inspect O'Neill.

Thor felt his eyes widen.

Oh dear, to quote the vernacular.

"Besides, it's not going to matter to Thor. The Asgard are naked all the time." Daniel Jackson was standing beside O'Neill, hands over O'Neill's head and chest, plainly examining him with Ascended senses.

"The Asgard don't have external genitalia, either," Rodney McKay pointed out. "Is the General okay? The General we're both standing naked in front of, by the way. The General who will kill me if he sees us both standing naked in front of him. Together. Naked. In front of him."

"He can't kill you. And yes, aside from being in an artificially induced state of unconsciousness and having his brain stirred again, he's okay. What did you do to him, Thor?"

Thor reminded himself that there had been a time when Daniel Jackson's maternal ancestors had considered him a god and nerved himself to reply.

"It was necessary for O'Neill to be able to access certain information from the Ancients' download, information I had previously blocked from his recall."

"Why was it necessary?" Daniel Jackson naturally asked next. "What information? Was this something Jack asked you to do?"

"Angel."

Taking note of the unusual endearment, Thor observed with relief that Rodney McKay seemed to have a calming effect on Daniel Jackson. Odd, that, Thor thought, given Hermiod's impressions of McKay had indicated exactly the opposite. Then again, Hermiod was an excitable sort himself by Asgard standards.

"'Angel' is rather emasculating, isn't it? I'm sorry, Thor. Please explain to me why you felt the need to do this to Jack?"

"Because you need him," Thor said honestly, boiling all his motives down to the one that had driven him the most. "O'Neill likes to see hard evidence. He prefers, as he would no doubt say, to 'cut to the chase'. By restoring the pertinent sections of Ancient knowledge regarding the prophecies-"

"Goddamnit, Thor, that's not your call to make!"

"Respectfully, my Regestere Charus, I disagree," Thor said, and bowed, paying Daniel Jackson his due. "I have witnessed the prophecies of Benin. As you know, Lya of the Nox has them, worked in Benin's own hand."

"Goddamnit, Thor!" Daniel Jackson swore again, but the glow that had surrounded him again was diminishing and to Thor's relief he was beginning to smile. "You have?"

"I know who you are, Daniel Jackson. I do not name my ships lightly."

"Of course you don't," Daniel Jackson murmured, his hand on O'Neill's shoulder. "Thank you, Thor. Well. We should be going, Rodney. Back to Atlantis?"

"Shouldn't you stay?" Rodney McKay asked, his voice seeming very quiet. "You should stay," he corrected himself quickly, tone gathering strength. "I can go back by myself, right?"

"Yeah, Rodney, you got yourself here, but that's not the-"

"I did? I did! Huh! Well, go me!" Rodney McKay rubbed his hands together and did a little glowing of his own.

Thor embarrassed himself by squeaking out loud, drawing the attention of both men. Daniel Jackson gave him an inscrutable look then graced him with a genuine smile.

"I've been remiss. I didn't introduce you. Supreme Commander Thor of the Asgard, Rodney McKay, Meredith of Atlantis, the foretold Seconda Conscenderus of the Fifth Race."

"I am privileged," Thor said, meaning it.

However, he'd assumed O'Neill would be Daniel Jackson's Second.

"No." Rodney McKay flung his hands up in the air. "Daniel, no, that was a joke. Wasn't it? A joke. So, no. Just, no. No, no, no, no. Oh, my god, what's supposed to happen next? These prophecy things never end well-"

"Rodney."

Daniel Jackson ascended in the space of approximately 350 milliseconds, his brilliant celestial form wrapping like a blanket around Rodney McKay, whose metamorphosis from matter into energy took 2.7 seconds. This time Thor was prepared for the voice he heard in his head.

 _"Jack will need time to think. So do I. Are you bringing him to Atlantis?"_

"Yes," Thor said simply. "It is my intention ... how is it said among your youth ... to first swing by the Nox homeworld and 'swoop up' Lya. It is time for a new Alliance to meet on Atlantis and dispose the problem of the Wraith."

Thor felt their startled laughter warm him like electromagnetic radiation from a luminous ball of plasma. Quite pleasing.

 _"Yeah, about that. We have a plan,"_ Daniel Jackson thought after a moment, sliding the information directly into Thor's brain. Thor scanned through the mental pictures, rapidly comprehending the bare facts as Daniel Jackson presented them.

More than a bit astonished by how very near Rodney McKay had come to actually making Arcturus work, Thor decided the plan had merit, indeed.

***

 _"Why didn't you stay with Jack? You know - Thor knew - and you had to have seen-"_

 _"Rodney, I'm not done not-talking about Jack."_

 _"Daniel, I think you have to. And hey, not to be difficult, but shouldn't we tell-"_

 _"Oh, yeah, there's a report I'm dying to make to the SGC."_

 _"We need to resign, actually, if I understand you correctly? Who you are..."_

 _"Yeah. What Chaya and Thor said, and you can access the Ancient knowledge yourself. So what. Right now, who I am is the cheating bastard who betrayed his lover."_

 _"No, Daniel. No. Don't go there, don't do that to yourself. You didn't know."_

 _"I should have known. I knew, obviously, when Jack was frightened. I would have known if he'd had sex, if he'd gotten aroused. He wasn't. I would have known, right?"_

 _"Maybe. Maybe not. Give yourself a break. What were you supposed to think?"_

 _"I just- He was in_ our bed _with his ex-wife. I saw them and..."_

 _"You flipped? Who the hell could blame you? Does it even matter if they had sex or not?"_

 _"Yes. No. I don't know."_

 _"Give yourself a break."_

 _"Rodney-"_

 _"Look, maybe you leaped at a reason to get out of a relationship that isn't satisfying you either physically or emotionally. I'm your friend first and rebound man second so you don't need an excuse with me. For what it's worth, I don't believe you're working with a conscious level of intent, here, Daniel. You're not exactly thinking things through, you're reacting. Which is okay for a while."_

 _"Here you are, here for me anyway. Rodney. I ... don't know. I don't even know what I know, you know?"_

 _"This, from the master linguist. But I get it."_

 _"I do know you're not rebound man. We don't feel wrong together."_

 _"Oh my god, we're gay country music. Hey, Daniel, look, whatever you need from me, I'm there. But if you let O'Neill kill me-"_

 _"It's not like you can't ascend to get away from him if you have to, you know."_

 _"Oh, yes, that's right. Wow. By the way, have I mentioned how very cool this is? This is just what I imagined ascension would be like before I met a few Ancients. Feeling like part of it all. 'We are star stuff, we are the universe made manifest, trying to figure itself out'."_

 _"Ah. Carl Sagan?"_

 _"Hmm. Him, too, I think, but I was quoting Ambassador Delenn on 'Babylon Five'. Daniel, you have no idea who or what that is, do you."_

 _"I do so know who you're talking about."_

 _"Suuuure you do."_

 _"No. Seriously. I do. I've watched the show with Teal'c. Listen. 'But none of the governments here could have done it. Which left only two possibilities: a new race, or an old race. A very old race.'"_

 _"G'Kar to Na'Toth in "Revelations". That was a good episode. The words are very apt, very us. We're both."_

 _"Very new, and very old. Rodney, Benin made his prophecies before the current incarnation of humanity crawled out of the primordial ooze, before the first Alliance of the Four Races. He predicted the schism between the Alterans and the Ori, the plague that would force the Ancients into ascending, warned that the Goa'uld would send the Furlings and Nox into hiding and the Asgard would almost fall to the Replicators. He didn't call them Replicators. Still._

 _"Benin recorded - you'll appreciate this - forty-two prophecies. Thirty-nine of those have come to pass and personally I think a lot of them were self-fulfilling which is why the actual prophecies were hidden on the Nox homeword and became another secret the advanced races kept between themselves. But. You and I are in number forty, as First Ones of the Fifth Race. I can't deny to myself that's what we are, Rodney. I've seen- Let me show you. Like this..._

 _"Daniel?"_

 _"I know, this is a little different. Relax, and let me in. God, you feel so good like this, inside your mind is beautiful."_

 _"Yours, too. You- this-_ Daniel. _You shine."_

 _"Thank you._ Thank you, _Rodney. Now, concentrate ... here..."_

 _"Oh. I get it. It's like ... racial memory."_

 _"Genetic memory."_

 _"Eh, wouldn't the lack of genes rather prohibit that?"_

 _"Baby. Think lateral, not linear. Besides, you aren't lacking any genes."_

 _"Daniel, I have Carson's mouse gene-"_

 _"No, you don't. Not any more. Rodney, don't you get it? You're in the prophecy, the Atlantean Ascendant, heir to the City of the Ancients, Seconda Conscenderus to the Regestere Charus. One-hundred percent authentic Ancient to the genetic level, just like me, ever since the first time you ascended. The first Atlantean Ascendant in ten thousand years._

 _"But you and I, we're still human, too. A very old race, and very new._

 _"You have to know, I don't want to be this- this person, this thing - that Benin says I am. 'Take this cup away from me', indeed. I thought- I tried to keep it all completely separate from Jack and Jack made that ... easy because he didn't want to know that I'm ascended. I mean, he knew I'd ascended, but he didn't understand how different it was. I was different. How was I supposed to tell him-"_

 _"You say, 'Oh, Jerk, you know how you should have been treating me like the king of the universe all along ... well, guess what.'"_

 _"Oh, very funny, Rodney."_

 _"Made you laugh. Anyway, he'll know who you are now."_

 _"How do you think he'll react?"_

 _"You're asking_ me?"

 _"Your guess is as good as mine."_

 _"...oookay. It would be nice to think he wouldn't be a complete asshole about it, Daniel, but I can see even you don't think that's likely. He's hurt you."_

 _"You don't. You- I'm glad it's you, Rodney. Do you get that? Feel me? I'm glad it's you. I'm glad you're my Second. You don't hurt me."_

 _"Daniel. I never will ... come on, let's go back to Atlantis, to that big bed in the east tower, and forget about everything else for a while. That sound all right, sweet angel? We'll just forget about everything and everybody, hmm?"_

 _"Please. Please, Rodney."_

***

Was he dreaming?

John wasn't sure (and a galaxy away, neither was Jack O'Neill).

What he saw seemed like a dream, glowy and unreal, scenes spooling out like motion pictures ... a brilliant fireball slowly separating into two ... light sculpting itself into the forms of human men, flesh and blood and bone.

Naked, beautiful ... Daniel lay buried in Rodney, weeping, weeping in his friend's arms, while Rodney shielded shuddering shoulders, holding on and crying the same silent tears.

***

"He never wanted to want me," Daniel said some indeterminate time later. He lay with his head on Rodney's shoulder, letting Rodney hold him, for which Rodney felt privileged, knowing how rarely Daniel ever accepted comfort. "He hated himself for wanting me, even hated me for a while. It still feels like he's with me ... despite himself. Sometimes ... sometimes it makes me feel ... dirty."

Exercising considerable force of will, Rodney remained silent, brushing his hands up and down the silky skin over Daniel's back, soothing the tension that was gathering there. Daniel let out a huge sigh, hiding his hot face in the side of Rodney's neck.

"I guess the not-talking about Jack phase is officially over," Daniel grumbled, voice rough against Rodney's skin. Humming appreciatively at the vibration that set up along his nervous system, Rodney cupped one palm over the nape of Daniel's neck and kissed an embarrassed cheek.

"Go ahead, precious, get it all off your pretty chest," he encouraged in the swishiest tone he could manage, gratified by Daniel's low giggle.

"I'm sorry. It's really crude of me to talk about Jack when I'm-"

"-still buried up my ass? I forgive you. You feel amazing in me," Rodney said, hooking his ankles behind Daniel's thighs and pulling, groaning when Daniel stirred over his prostate, feeling split apart and burning on Daniel's thick cock. "So fucking good. He doesn't know- god, yes, there, oh, oh -doesn't know what he's miss- ah! God, yes, do that again!"

Daniel pulled out a bit and surged into him, again and again. Rodney writhed and twisted and pushed right back, ground his cock against Daniel's firm belly and quickly went mindless with rapture ... held at the peak for several more of Daniel's powerful thrusts before dying with pleasure ... ascending and coming, coming and ascending, Daniel right there with him, in him deep.

***

"How did you know?" Daniel wondered later still, genuinely curious to know how he could have given so much away to Rodney, who'd known that truth even before they'd shared their ascended selves. Daniel was well aware Rodney was more perceptive than he was often given credit for, but he hadn't expected Rodney would have seen through him so easily or so quickly.

"That Jerk O'Neill doesn’t let you fuck him?"

"Stop calling him that."

"Sorry. Not. I guessed the first time you fucked me, angel. You needed to fuck."

"I did. I _am_ glad it's you, Rodney," Daniel said, meaning every word. "Thank you for being here when I needed you."

"You're welcome, but I should be thanking you. I needed you, too," Rodney noted philosophically, hands on Daniel's shoulders, positioning him matter-of-factly. "I've wasted a lot of mental energy hoping things with John would- well, no more, you know? It’s- he’s- too complicated."

"I understand that."

"I thought you might. So, we'll be uncomplicated."

Daniel liked the way Rodney made free with his body, arranging him face and shoulders down, ass high. He groaned, buttocks being pulled apart by Rodney's big warm hands, hands that touched and petted like Rodney was feeding his palms on Daniel's skin.

Daniel liked that, too. Rodney loved to love him. It showed.

His hole tingling with anticipation, Daniel relaxed into Rodney's control and prepared to stop thinking.

"Oh my god, I absolutely adore this," he breathed reverentially as Rodney licked down his crease. "Love your mouth on my ass."

He'd never been rimmed before Rodney, had never experienced the hot squishy _nasty_ joy of it, hadn't known he could feel so desired and accepted, that so much pleasure could be wrung from his physical body.

He had a clue, now. Rodney frenched his ass, rubbed firm fingers over his perineum, and fisted his cock. Daniel came so hard he re-ascended them involuntarily, spilling out ecstasy in beams of brilliant white light.

***

"Of course, this is not possible," Radek informed them with dancing eyes, pointing out the relevant readings to John and Elizabeth. "The primary ZPM is currently at 98.79 percent. The two that were almost empty are both over fifty percent full, although 'empty' and 'full' are rather imprecise. Charged, perhaps."

John shook his head and finally had to laugh. Rodney. God. Who knew? Only everybody on Atlantis and, John suspected, surrounding galaxies. They'd all felt it.

Rodney had turned Daniel Jackson inside _out._ Power readings had gone off the scale; Atlantis herself had given a mental _fawhump!_ and was still radiating a post-coital buzz of happy warmth that even those without the gene reported feeling.

Long-range sensors and shields they hadn't known their City had were coming online and running through diagnostics programs and self-checks. That part felt a little like Christmas.

Elizabeth covered her face in her hands for a moment, visibly struggling for words to frame the obvious question of how the ZPMs were charged and what - or who - enabled the defense subsystems.

"So. Go, Rodney," John found himself saying, snickering when Elizabeth started to giggle as helplessly as a teenager.

He couldn't manage jealousy any more. Now he was envious, and that was an entirely different thing.

***

Jack woke up with Benin's Prophecies front and center in his mind, along with all the relevant information on Benin himself and why the Nox were in possession of the originals. He understood at once why Thor thought it was important for him to know all that stuff, but his immediate concern was _Daniel._ Daniel had been here.

He could still feel where Daniel had touched him.

And his dream hadn't been a dream. He knew what happened on Atlantis. Daniel was fucking Rodney McKay.

Gasping like he'd been gutted, Jack ground his teeth together and let the initial burst of rage wash through him, the way he'd finally learned to do with his grief. Riding the wave, treading water, until it ebbed away and betrayal rolled in to replace it. He surfed that, too, waiting it out, letting it hurt before trying to think past it.

Damn it. _Damn_ it, Daniel.

He took a couple of deep breaths, well aware Thor was standing there watching him with as anxious a face as Thor ever got. He didn't have to see it.

Control.

Unfortunately, as his mind cleared, Jack became aware of a gradually increasing sense of culpability. To a large extent, the fine mess he found himself in was of his own making. Daniel finding him in bed with Sara was probably just the icing on the cake. He might as well have wrapped Daniel up in a ribbon and handed him over.

He hadn't made it easy for Daniel, not as a CO, not as a friend, and definitely not as a lover. Being in love with - making love to - a man hadn't been easy for _him._ Not after Iraq. Being gay - _admitting_ he was gay - that felt like something he'd been contaminated with during the times he'd been raped as a prisoner of war, not who he really _was._

He knew that kind of thinking was fucked up; he knew he'd had ... leanings ... as a teenager that he'd never acted on, yet when he'd reframed it to himself that way he still had problems getting past how it _felt,_ as if being gay or bisexual meant he'd asked for what happened to him. Invited it somehow.

Daniel knew he'd been raped - Jack had told him - and to all appearances had seemed to accept the limitations Jack set on their sex life. Jack didn't bottom. He didn't give blow jobs. He loved touching Daniel, and touched a lot, but had some problems letting Daniel touch him, especially on the ass. Daniel had been infinitely understanding, or so Jack had believed.

Now, remembering the way Daniel had been crying in that dream/vision/whatever, Jack was starting to realize how much of a strain Daniel had been under, apparently on a number of levels. Strain he hadn't shared with Jack and had, in fact, concealed.

While trying to be what Jack wanted, take only what Jack would give, make do with what Jack allowed ... and Jack hadn't allowed much. Their relationship had been one-sided in so many ways.

No wonder Daniel was so quick to assume Jack would go back to women.

 _God_ damn it. He was a selfish, self-centered son of a bitch, who'd just allowed something that happened almost two decades ago to fuck up his love life for the second time. The rapes had undermined his marriage to Sara as well, faultlines weakening a foundation that couldn't hold against the loss of their child.

No more. Never again.

He sat up and scrubbed his hands through his hair, giving Thor a cold-eyed glare.

"Thor, next time you better ask first or I'm gonna kick your ass, advanced race or not."

"Understood, O'Neill. The Regestere Charus was quite emphatic in his warning, as well."

"Daniel _was_ here." Jack set aside that whole 'beloved ruler' thing for the time being, although it bugged him that Daniel had never come to him about the prophecies. Then again, why should Daniel trust him to accept more ascended stuff? Jack had mocked it at every turn ... and he'd kept so much of himself reserved from Daniel, out of Daniel's reach, not trusting Daniel with all of himself, either.

"Was Daniel all right?"

"He was extremely angry with me on your behalf."

"He was?" Sweet. Maybe things weren't completely FUBAR, then. "He had McKay with him?"

Thor actually sighed.

"The Seconda Conscenderus of the Fifth Race, Rodney McKay, Meredith of Atlantis, attended the Regestere Charus Daniel Jackson."

It took Jack a few moments to apply Thor's phrasing to the relevant parts of the prophecy. When he did, he was rewarded with an instant headache lancing through his forehead.

"Rodney McKay is the Second Ascended?" he asked, working hard to keep his voice neutral.

"So he was introduced to me by Daniel Jackson. I must confess to an error in judgment, O'Neill. I had believed you were to be the Second. It is one reason why I unblocked the Ancient knowledge surrounding Benin's prophecies. I am curious. Did Daniel Jackson never invite you to ascend?"

 _Well, shit. Shit, shit, shit._

"Not recently, no," Jack said slowly. "I turned him down a few years ago." Turned him down so hard he'd never asked again. Good job, Jack.

"I see." Thor's tone was distinctly unhappy. "Do you still intend to accompany me to Atlantis?"

"Oh, yeah, definitely. It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings, buddy." The position wasn't mentioned in the prophecy, but Jack decided he could damned well be third. "I need to talk to the SGC and let 'em know I'm going to be off-world."

"As you wish, O'Neill."

Come to think on it, maybe he'd just retire. Again. Then he'd be unencumbered by 'don't ask don't tell' by the time he caught up with Daniel. He had a feeling he was going to need all the advantages he could get.

Because if Daniel thought he was just going to give up, Daniel had another think coming.

***

"I should check in."

"Atlantis would tell you if you were needed."

"I want to look at the ZedPMs."

"You want to gloat."

"Well, yes. Do you blame me?"

"Not at all, which is why you have to stay. I want to gloat, too."

"Trust me, you already have plenty to- Daniel?"

"Yeah, turn over a little ... pull your knee up just like that ... my god, Rodney, you have a magnificent ass ... are you _blushing?"_

"Daniel, darling, of course not. I don't blush. It's just ... people are usually telling me I _am_ a magnificent ass, not that I have one- ah, that's- what are you- oh. Oh, yeeeaaah."

Daniel was stroking and nuzzling Rodney's ass, squeezing the perfect swell of each full cheek, alternating between feather-light touches over satin-soft skin and digging his fingers into Rodney's firm glutes, loving the way Rodney filled his hands. Revealed, Rodney's hole was puffy, pink, and leaking Daniel's own come; it was one of the most erotic sights Daniel had ever seen. Rodney's skin was salty-sweet, smooth to his curious tongue, yielding easy bruises to judicious sucking.

Rodney had subsided to pants and groans, lifting his pelvis to make room for his hardening cock. Daniel pressed his mouth to Rodney's perineum, tasting himself there, and heard himself growl, shaking with sudden arousal.

He wasn't going to let himself waste any more time wishing he'd seen Jack like this, just once, bearing the evidence of his possession on a body that moved eagerly into his touch, wanting every single thing he had to give, hungry for all of him.

This was never going to happen with Jack. He had to respect that. And maybe, respect himself and his own needs, for once.

Dismissing every concern but the unadulterated flavor of his come on Rodney - and he tasted good, damn it - Daniel ran his tongue over slightly swollen tissues and fondled Rodney's hairy, tightening balls. Rodney cried out, inarticulate, almost sobbing as Daniel felched him, his sphincter spasming with aftershocks as Daniel teased it open and sucked. Long thigh muscles jumped as Rodney tried to spread himself open even wider, welcoming whatever Daniel felt like doing to him.

Wanting him.

That just never got old.

Pausing just long enough to leave teethmarks in Rodney's ass cheek, Daniel crawled up his friend's strong back and pushed him flat onto the mattress, rubbing their bodies together, glorying in skin and flesh and bone.

"I'm going to fuck you again," he warned mere seconds before pushing his rigid cock into Rodney's slick, tight hole. Setting his teeth on the nape of Rodney's neck, he bit down again, riding Rodney when Rodney bucked and writhed and whined appreciatively. "I'm going to come up your ass again, Rodney, then I'll lick it out - again - because I taste good on you. Then I'll suck your cock. And you won't get to come until I let you. I bet all the ZPMs will end up fully charged."

It turned out Daniel was right.

***

Hank Landry crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair, face unhappy as he inspected Jack and Thor across the briefing room table. Jack felt for him, really. He did. How much shit had the SGC been dropped in thanks to rumors, lies, and fairytales? The whole damned program was based on them and this was just more of the same.

All the same, Jack wished he was telling this to George Hammond.

"Look, Hank-"

"No, you look, General O'Neill. You're saying Daniel Jackson, _our_ Doctor Daniel Jackson, has turned into some kind of superhuman-ascended being who can change at will from one form to the other! That's a huge threat to-"

"I do not believe you grasp the 'big picture', General Landry," Thor interrupted, his mild, even tones somehow managing to convey an irritation that bordered on contempt. Startled, Jack barely kept his mouth from gaping when Thor went on. "The anticipated evolution of the Tau'ri into the Fifth Race has already begun. Daniel Jackson is the Regestere Charus, the Beloved Ruler, the First One of the Fifth Race, the Tau'ri Ascendant. He is no threat to the righteous."

Now Jack's jaw did drop. So did Landry's. Thor was just getting started.

"It has been said, 'a prophet is not without honor save in his own country'. This is a provincial attitude that will not serve your people well in the larger scope of intergalactic politics - politics in which you have involved yourselves by fighting the Goa'uld, the Ori, the Replicators, and the Wraith. Should the SGC desire a voice within the new Alliance, you will accord Daniel Jackson all due respect, with the understanding that he is now beyond the reach of Tau'ri government or this command.

"Otherwise, the Alliance will listen to nothing you have to suggest. I caution you, the Asgard will stand behind the Regestere Charus, as will the Nox and the majority of Ascended. You do not realize what he has already done."

"Thor, maybe you should tell us, because Daniel never will," Jack said into the little silence that fell on the Asgard commander's solemn words, sparing a sharp gaze to make sure Hank Landry kept his mouth shut.

"In a timeline that no longer exists, it became evident that the Asgard civilization was going to fall. We elected to destroy ourselves, leaving all our knowledge to you Tau'ri. Colonel Carter established a time dilation field around the ship conveying our civilization's legacy to keep it from being seized by Ori.

"Daniel Jackson ascended himself, took the ship back in time and stopped us. As well as the Ori." Thor looked about as pissed off as Jack had ever seen, pretty much glaring at him. "This is Daniel Jackson's 'glowy business', O'Neill, of which you speak so dismissively. The Regestere Charus stood at the head of his army and banished the Ori from this plane of existence, never to return.

"With the Ori gone, at Daniel Jackson's request and direction, Ascended, Ancients, and Nox next turned their attention toward the Asgard race. Not only did they go to great lengths to ameliorate conditions on worlds adversely affected by the Replicators, they resolved the issue of our genetic drift. The Asgard are no longer dying," Thor declared proudly.

"Jackson has an army? Of Ascended?" Trust Landry to pick up that point. Thor was not pleased and Jack was right, Thor did impressive stink eye. Jack was glad it wasn't aimed at him this time.

"Not all are ascended," Thor said repressively. "For example, the Asgard."

His point apparently made, Thor steepled his fingers and waited for commentary.

Jack didn't know what to think, let alone say. Part of him still disbelievingly wondered _"Daniel?"_ while another part questioned _"Who else?"_ That part ached with deep, fierce pride. Above and below everything else was the lingering shame Jack felt for so badly mishandling their relationship and underestimating Daniel, shame that was bedrocked into him along with his sheer longing for Daniel's presence.

However, he was Jack O'Neill, so he spared some mental space for the vision of Daniel, incandescent at the head of his glowy army, not surprised when a little voice south of his head piped up and informed him _"That's hot."_

Huh.

The stargate lit up - claxons alarming, gate tech warning _"Unscheduled Offworld Activation!"_ \- which fortunately distracted Jack from thinking too much just as he realized he couldn't remember a single occasion when he'd told Daniel he thought Daniel was hot. Lya and about twenty other Nox appeared on the ramp, right through the iris, and Jack wished for the thousandth time that these advanced races wouldn't keep rubbing it in that humans - weren't.

Thor took the liberty of transporting the three of them down to the gateroom floor and Jack had to hand it to Hank Landry, he managed to act like it happened every day.

"Stand down," Landry ordered the SF's, who were looking a bit rattled. "These people are allies." Before Landry could turn to greet Lya, Jack put himself there first, holding out his hands, half-wishing he could go to his knees.

He felt a need for absolution.

Lya caught his fingers in hers, lifting his hands to her sweet face as she bowed over them.

"Jack O'Neill, how lovely to see you well," she said gently, smiling at him as she straightened, her expression tolerant, affectionate, and just as forgiving as Jack needed it to be. Feeling better, he offered a grin and waved her attention to Thor.

"Look who else is visiting."

"Thor, I was told I would find you here."

"Lya."

Jack watched interestedly as the two aliens bowed at each other, somehow conveying their mutual warm regard the way an embrace would have done for a pair of humans.

"How may the Asgard be of assistance?" Thor asked next and it took Jack a moment to notice that not only was Thor speaking in Ancient, he wasn't having any problem understanding it.

"We require passage to Atlantis. The Regestere Charus sends the call. The days of the Wraith are few," Lya declared in the language Thor chose, her tiny sideways grin telling Jack she knew he understood them.

Carter, Teal'c, and Mitchell had arrived by then, and just to mess with them, Jack decided he'd speak Ancient, too.

"Thor and I were going to come get you on our way out there, Lya," he volunteered, ignoring Landry's glower, Carter's and Mitchell's surprise, and Teal'c's rather smug satisfaction - of course, Teal'c knew what they were saying.

Lya nodded, face momentarily serious.

"That is well, for Daniel needs us there. We must conceal those worlds the Wraith would think to plunder on their paths to Atlantis."

"I must go to my ship and order my Fleet," Thor pronounced, reaching for Jack's forearm and patting it. "Make due haste, O'Neill," he said in English and vanished in the usual flash of white light.

"What's this about Daniel, Atlantis, and the Wraith? What's going on, Sir?" Carter asked, and Jack supposed he should have figured she'd recognize some words.

"Carter, find me a piece of paper and an ink pen, wouldja? Got a couple of things to put in writing before you can ask and I can tell," Jack said to her under his breath, his mind made up, ignoring the shock on Carter's face.

Yeah, he was going to do this, give everything up for Daniel Jackson, the same way Daniel had given up the earth for Sha're.

He hoped it would prove something to Daniel.

***

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that, please?" Elizabeth requested, her tone politely disbelieving, eyes full of that look she got when she thought you were unhinged.

Rodney knew that look well, but he didn't care. Not about that or the bitching Elizabeth had already done about the way he'd opened the stargate earlier. Daniel had explained it as their need to speak with Thor about their plans, none of which Elizabeth appeared to be too thrilled with.

"He said, the Wraith are mobilizing. They'll soon be on their way here so we can get rid of them. Humanely," Rodney tacked on, glancing down the table at John, who was crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair.

"Who is this 'we', white man?" John asked, drawling.

"Rodney and I, with about five-thousand other Ascended, the Asgard, the Nox, representatives of the Free Jaffa Nation, a few assorted Tau'ri and the free peoples of the Pegasus galaxy. Don't you want in?"

Daniel favored John Sheppard with a brilliant, relaxed _"Rodney and I fucked not an hour ago"_ smile that somehow reminded Rodney of lions yawning over their half-eaten prey. Elizabeth coughed lightly and drew Daniel's attention. She ended up blinking under the force of that smile.

John caught Rodney's eye and mouthed "wow" - a reaction that cheered Rodney hugely for a number of reasons, not least of which was his relief that John didn't seem to have a problem with him being actively gay.

At least there was that. Maybe they'd be able to resurrect their friendship now that John could see he was off Rodney's radar, romantically speaking. Meanwhile, if Daniel wanted to rub it in a little bit more that Rodney was a sex god, well, Rodney didn't have a problem with that.

Daniel stretched in his chair, reaching over his head and rolling his neck. His tee shirt - borrowed from Rodney - bunched over his biceps and pulled up to reveal his flank, all pale honey skin flawless over taut muscle. Rodney found his mouth watering and pressed his lips together tightly, not wanting to chance drooling. Daniel was also wearing Rodney's cargo shorts, which sagged provocatively near the point of one hip.

He should have looked ridiculous, but.

"Atlantis will be our headquarters and she will be at the front. You can evac to the SGC if you want. We'll bring you back when it's over," Daniel said casually, tone faintly contemptuous.

"Doctor Jackson-"

"Atlantis doesn't belong to us, Elizabeth. It's not the IOA's or the SGC's or Earth's. Atlantis is the City of the Ancients and she's waited a long time to see the end of the Wraith," John said very quietly, startling Rodney with this unexpected show of support.

"Hey, Atlantis, please put the question to the citizens. Anyone who wants to go to earth submit their request to Citizen Administrator Elizabeth Weir and arrangements will be made to open the gate for the SGC. Those who wish to remain here need to understand the full circumstances, please explain it to them. The Athosians are welcome to accompany us, stay on the planet, or go through the gate to wherever they want."

"By your command, my Meredith. All will be as you wish."

"Rodney!" Elizabeth's tone was accusatory. "Did you program Atlantis to-"

"How dare you?" Daniel's hand slammed down on the briefing room table. Rodney could swear he saw lightning flash. "Atlantis is Rodney's by right of ascension. The City knows-"

"Daniel. Daniel, stop, it's okay," Rodney said, understanding why Elizabeth might wonder. _"Hey, wow, thank you. No one has ever defended me like that."_

 _"You're my Second, Rodney. You're my friend. You're my lover. You deserve my defense, my loyalty,"_ Daniel told him silently, the words weeping tears inside Rodney's mind when Daniel couldn't help knifing himself with thoughts of Jack O'Neill.

"Daniel," he said again, holding out his hand and turning into light. _"Come with me?"_

 _"Yes,"_ Daniel promised and ascended with him.

***

Instead of taking them back to their big bed or his quarters - either of which site Daniel rooted for - Rodney de-ascended them in a completely different section of Atlantis. As they became corporeal, the large room lit up, revealing a number of bright, active consoles and several holographic star charts that stretched from floor to ceiling.

"Call it Stellar Cartography, for want of a better label. Atlantis told me this room was here. I thought it would make a good tac center," Rodney informed him, one finger idly interrupting the flow of light where Doranda once was. _"You know why Elizabeth said that."_

 _"She doesn't understand. It doesn't matter what she thinks."_

 _"She's my- I thought she was my friend, Daniel."_

"I know," Daniel said, recalling the moment Replicator Samantha Carter murdered him. That's how Rodney felt. _"I'm sorry she hurt you."_

 _"Yeah, well, I've fucked up a few times."_

 _"She's not perfect, either."_ Daniel could remember wanting to kick Elizabeth Weir's ass on occasion, especially when the Goa'uld System Lords had visited the SGC like slavemasters already dividing the stock. Just the memory made Daniel grind his teeth before he reminded himself they were all dead false gods now.

Rodney stood next to him and bumped their shoulders together companionably, giving Daniel's mind another welcome detour away from naturally veering towards Jack O'Neill.

He just couldn't touch that yet. That wound was too gaping, too raw, lacerated and scoured by his own impulsive actions and selfish decisions ... and yet, he couldn't regret _anything_ he'd done with Rodney, who'd become the friend Jack had somehow stopped being once becoming Daniel's lover.

The friend who accepted and loved everything he was, without reservation or condition.

 _"I miss Sha're,"_ Daniel thought with an accustomed pang. "Sheppard couldn't keep his eyes off you," is what he said, giving Rodney an answering nudge.

"Really? Hmm. Well, everybody was looking at us."

That was true. Before meeting with John and Elizabeth, he and Rodney had de-ascended in Rodney's quarters and dressed. Every person they'd passed in the corridors between there and the gateroom - and there seemed a larger number of people than usual based on what Daniel recalled from previous visits - had indeed been looking. At them. Most with polite greetings and smiles, some with shaking heads and snickers. A startling number of Marines had given Rodney thumbs-up, which kept Rodney's face red. Only a few people had frowned on seeing them together, and fewer still had sneered or turned away, making Daniel proud of the expedition's personnel in general.

He'd also been embarrassed, but only a little. Mostly he felt enormously freed by being so open. So _out._ Having Rodney at his side, willing to be right out there with him - it felt incredible, in every sense of that word.

"He was looking at you. You look good, Rodney," he said affectionately, proud of the light in his friend's eyes.

The light he'd put there. Daniel got to feel like he was _good_ for Rodney. It was a novel sensation.

"Yeah, well. Thanks, angel," Rodney muttered after clearing his throat, blushing again from his forehead to the middle of his chest. "So do you, which is obvious, because once again, hello! Naked! Where _do_ the clothes go? When you ascend and appear as the image of your corporeal body, you don't appear nude, which implies the mind is capable of manufacturing the image of clothing, so why not the clothes themselves? Chaya doesn't usually de-ascend naked so obviously there's a-"

"How about you think about it while I take shameless advantage?" Daniel interrupted, backing Rodney into one of the consoles, going to his knees at his friend's feet, hands eagerly spanning the heavy muscles of Rodney's strong thighs. "We're going to be too busy for this in a while."

"Hey, I don't need convincing," Rodney assured him, fingers clutching the edge of the console as he gladly surrendered himself to Daniel's whim.

Daniel was discovering he had a lot of ... whim.

***

"That went well," John drawled, covering the impulse to reach over and slice out Elizabeth's tongue. He'd seen Rodney's face before Daniel Jackson slapped the table. He'd also seen Rodney - _Rodney_ \- be the one who ascended first, _taking Jackson with him._

"No, it didn't," Elizabeth admitted slowly, crossing her hands in her lap and staring at them. "Damn. I just - I don't understand what's going on."

"Do you require additional information, Citizen Administrator Elizabeth Weir?" Elizabeth jumped as Atlantis addressed her, straightening in her chair.

"I don't know where to begin," she said as if to herself and John thought, why not?

"Atlantis. Why do you call Doctor Jackson 'the Agapitos Daan' and Doctor McKay 'my Meredith'? Explain."

"Doctor Daniel Jackson is the prophesied First One of the Fifth Race, the Regestere Charus or Beloved Ruler, inheritor of the Ancients, opener of the ways, the Terran or Tau'ri Ascendant whose existence was predicted by Benin so many millions of years ago the Ancients were then young. His coming has been long anticipated. To honor his ancestors, I chose Terran words in which to translate his title."

"And Rodney?" John prodded impatiently, silently telling Atlantis she didn't have to sound so damned thrilled about Daniel Jackson. Inside his head she was laughing at him with fond good humor.

"My Meredith Rodney McKay is also a Tau'ri Ascendant, Second to the Agapitos Daan, and the first Atlantean Ascendant in ten thousand years."

"Again with the 'Meredith'. Why?"

"My Meredith is who he is, my Imperator John Sheppard. My Meredith Rodney McKay."

"I thought you liked me best," John said and pouted, having forgotten entirely that Elizabeth was in the room.

"You are favored, John Sheppard, and well you know it."

Atlantis sounded just like his grandmother, scolding him with nothing but love in her voice. He still missed her, and she'd been dead many long years more than he'd had with her.

"Where will you and Rodney need me, Atlantis?" John decided he fully intended to stay with his City and be there, no matter what. He longed to see the scourge of the Wraith lifted off this galaxy, and if Atlantis, Rodney and Daniel Jackson said it could be done - the Wraith removed - he didn't doubt it would happen. He had to be part of that. _Had_ to.

"In the chair, eventually, my Imperator, where you were born to fly me."

"John, you can't just take Atlantis - _joy-riding_ \- because Rodney and Daniel Jackson say so! We have to talk to the SGC first-"

"Elizabeth." It was his turn to slap his open palms on the table. "This is bigger than the SGC. Even I can see that. This is going to happen with or without us. _They are going to get rid of the Wraith._ For godssakes, don't you want to see that? Haven't you wanted to _live to see that?"_

God knew he’d never expected to survive long enough to see it happen.

"Hey, Atlantis. Tell Rodney ... and Daniel ... I'm there."

"What about the Athosians? You can't take away their access to the 'gate," Elizabeth said next, her tone anxious.

"Fear not, citizens. The children of Athos will not be abandoned."

John blinked, getting the vision the City was sending him. A stargate would be placed on the mainland. Dialing protocols for two gates were well within her capabilities; the other stargate would be shielded like hers. The Athosians themselves would be protected - by something called a Nox? - when the City was off-world, did any Athosians choose not to accompany her. All would be well.

And her Imperator was quite correct; Atlantis had waited ten thousand years for these coming days and would not be deterred from her mission.

 _"Where will the stargate come from?"_ he wondered curiously.

 _"Where do you think the Astria Portae come from, my Imperator?"_

"Shit." John sat up in his chair like he'd been electrocuted, thinking "duh" at himself and bearing up under the mental clunk of 'you should have known that'. "Here. The stargates come from here. From you. The Ancients. That's- that's why all the ... energy buildup. Well, that and defense..."

"Correct. Even now, Citizen Radek Zelenka is being shown specifications for drone production. He has elected to remain and oversee their manufacture."

Somewhere inside John was a little kid jumping up and down hollering _"Yay, drones! Yay, Radek's staying!"_ Restraining himself physically, he poured it out to his City instead and felt her laugh with him.

"Drones." Elizabeth's voice sounded a little weak. "Stargates. Rodney and Daniel can _do this?"_

"Do not doubt it," Atlantis assured.

John, having seen the ZPMs, didn't doubt it one little bit.

"Got any preliminary results on who wants to stay and who wants to gate back to earth?" he wondered next when Elizabeth remained silent, her expression still worried. He didn't get why she was so weirded out - no pun intended - by all this. And maybe, he didn't exactly get why he _wasn't._ He just knew this was right. It felt right.

"Seventeen citizens have not yet recorded a decision. Nine citizens have expressed a desire to return to the First World. One hundred percent of citizens carrying what you term the ATA gene have elected to remain. Excepting Citizen Administrator Elizabeth Weir, all citizens who are original expedition members have likewise elected to remain, as have citizens Teyla Emmagan of Athos and Ronon Dex of Sateda."

John wondered how the City managed to simultaneously coax and scold with such coolly delivered statistics.

"Of course I'm staying," Elizabeth said, apparently shamed into it, frowning so fiercely at John he almost wanted to put his hands up and surrender. He limited himself to a terse "good" and watched Elizabeth sigh.

"We still need to notify the SGC."

"Yeah, whatever," John said and wondered what would happen if the SGC tried to tell them to keep Atlantis out of it.

***

"Good son." Daniel embraced the slim young man who'd just de-ascended with them. Inspecting him closely, finding his serene Nilotic features beautiful, Rodney knew at once who he must be.

Their visitor took Daniel's head in glowing hands and kissed Daniel's cheeks ceremoniously, incandescent with the devotion he so evidently felt for his mother's husband.

"Good father. You are content," he observed in a soft tenor, visibly pleased.

"I am. Shifu, may I present the Atlantean Ascendant, Doctor Meredith Rodney McKay, my Second."

"Prince Shifu, welcome to Atlantis," Rodney said, smiling back helplessly when both bright faces turned towards him and beamed. "Now, see? He has clothes."

"Rodney," Daniel laughed out loud.

Shifu watched Daniel for a moment then turned to Rodney and gave an impressively deep bow. Touched, Rodney allowed himself a tiny gasp and bowed in return, accepting the embrace Shifu offered him upon rising.

"Thank you," Shifu whispered in his ear. "Thank you," he said again, sharing ascended energies with Rodney, making sure Rodney knew how truly grateful he was that Daniel was well and actually happy.

 _"I'd do anything for him,"_ Rodney promised inside their minds and knew the Harcesis believed him, feeling the same way, too.

Shifu separated into himself and bowed once again over Rodney's hands, his grip warm and affectionate.

"I am honored to meet you, Meredith of Atlantis. Good Father, I come with news," he added, releasing Rodney to wave his hands over the holographic displays. Colored points lit up all over the maps, in every part of the Pegasus galaxy. "The Wraith begin to move. Uncle Skaara and the Ascended of Abydos are preventing any further culling and the Farrah Lengharis - the Furlings - are said to be enforcing hibernation on many in the hives. All will come to Atlantis.

"Commander Thor and the Asgard Fleet arrive soon with Lya and the Nox who will shield any threatened inhabited planets and assist with retrieval of the previously culled."

As Shifu spoke, he added different colored dots to designate the named players. Rodney noticed two things. Thor's ship, the Daniel Jackson, would arrive within hours, which meant Jack O'Neill would be here within hours. And there was a collection of blue-white lights gathered around the rift he'd left with Arcturus.

"The Ancients have gone to prepare a place for them," Daniel murmured quietly, resting his hand on the back of Rodney's neck, erasing the chill Rodney felt at the words.

"'In my Father's house are many mansions'," he found himself whispering, stirring the light with his finger yet again. The verse felt so apt, regardless of its source.

"Yes," Shifu said, catching his hand and pulling it away. "All will be well."

Rodney believed it.

"It's almost time to take Atlantis to Dorandas," he said to Daniel's and Shifu's nods, deliberately using the Ancient name.

"My Imperator John Sheppard awaits your command, my Meredith," Atlantis volunteered from the walls.

Now, _that_ was a surprise.

***

Daniel couldn't help but grin at the astonishment on Rodney's face, relieved for his friend that Sheppard wasn't letting Rodney down.

"Atlantis," he watched Rodney beckon, and knew in his ascended spirit that the City's Meredith had linked with Atlantis to know what she knew. _"Who's decided to go and have they left yet? And did Sheppard really-"_

 _"Yes,_ the City assured him - them - and proved it, showing John Sheppard's face at the moment when her Imperator had promised, while she simultaneously reminded the Gateroom that her energy levels, with three fully powered ZPMs, could open a wormhole to Earth every thirty eight minutes for the next thousand years if that was her Meredith's wish and perhaps someone should take one of the charged spares to the SGC.

"Citywide? No, wait. Daniel, clothes?" Rodney looked at Daniel and begged. "I have to work with these people. I know the nudity's a thing with you-"

"You have to admit, it's less threatening," Daniel remarked. He had given it some consideration. His tendency to de-ascend naked was one of the things that reminded the rest of the SGC that he was still human, lessening potential fear of him.

"Let them be threatened. You're the Agapitos Daan. Shifu, dress him in his Abydonian robes. I've seen pictures. It's how he's meant to be seen," Rodney declared, looking at Daniel with heat in his brilliant blue eyes.

Shifu laughed, such a rare lovely sound that Daniel couldn't protest when his robes gathered around him. He stood up straighter, always proud to wear the garb of his wife's people.

"Daniel of Abydos," Rodney whispered. "You look so fucking hot dressed like that. Oh, sorry, Shifu," he tacked on with a pretended grimace, winking at Daniel when the younger man actually giggled.

It occurred to Daniel that the last time he'd felt this purely glad to be alive he'd been dressed just like this.

With a thought, he dressed Rodney in the robes of Vis Uban, blue like his own had been. As he'd anticipated, they suited Rodney very well indeed, making his eyes deep, clear, and as powerful as Daniel knew the Atlantean Ascendant to be, also knowing Rodney hadn't fully grasped the extent of that himself. Yet.

 _"You should always wear blue, my Meredith."_

Taking Daniel's hands in his and lifting them to his mouth, Rodney brushed warm silky lips over Daniel's knuckles. Daniel shivered at the affection Rodney so willingly demonstrated for him, unfazed by their interested audience.

"As you wish, my King. Show me how?" Rodney invited quietly, turning in that instant into light and wrapping himself around Daniel, covering him like a sheltering cloak. Daniel barely caught Shifu's wondering gaze before ascending himself into Rodney's bright embrace, letting their energies meld and balance on the strength of their feelings for each other.

Through Rodney, Daniel could see into Atlantis' heart, feel the watch she kept over all her citizens and functions, strengthening Daniel's own ties to the City of the Ancients. Feeling more anchored to a place than he had since burying Sha're, Daniel relaxed and tried to let Rodney feel how grateful he was to be given a place to call home ... before soundlessly teaching how to materialize wearing clothes, delighted when Rodney chose to de-ascend dressed in the blue robes Daniel had selected for him.

"Baby, you look like who you are in those," he informed Rodney once he'd also de-ascended, choosing the clothing of Abydos as was his right.

Those who would be threatened might as well be, and he wanted to look like who he was, too.

"Do I look hot?" Rodney teased, grinning at him.

Daniel nodded, letting Rodney see himself. Not just hot, magnificent. Every inch the Meredith of Atlantis, head held high, stubborn jaw only a little softened by the blue cowl of his overcloak, eyes glittering and color high.

Rodney flushed then shot Daniel a mental image: Daniel, bent over a console, robes shoved up to his waist, with Rodney tonguing his hole. Daniel felt himself blush, too and had to laugh at them both.

"Better," Rodney said complacently, bouncing a little bit on his toes. "Watch me piss off Elizabeth. Atlantis, citywide, please?"

They felt rather than heard the City's assent.

"This is Doctor Meredith Rodney McKay. By now you will have been informed that Atlantis is leaving the planet and going to Dorandas, where the City will be instrumental in ending the threat of the Wraith to the free people of the Pegasus galaxy. We do this with the assistance of the Alliance of the four advanced races, if you don't know who that is, what are you doing in the SGC? Details are being sent to terminals now-"

Daniel heard Rodney tell the City to provide all citizens with Shifu's star charts, complete with legend, then felt Atlantis effortlessly comply, adding on at Rodney's request descriptions of the current players in intergalactic politics, now that the Goa'uld, the Ori, and the Replicators were history in the Milky Way.

On her own recognizance, Atlantis added footnotes that directed interested citizens to the relevant Prophecies of Benin, translated from the Ancient. Daniel found this vastly amusing, sensing the City was bent on dispensing instruction and Rodney on complete transparency.

Atlantis did it easily. She had power to burn. To Daniel, she felt almost half-Ascended herself.

"Those of you going back to the SGC need to leave within the hour. Atlantis will ... birth a stargate for the mainland in ... seventy-eight minutes, mark. Once in place and the Asgard arrive with the Nox, Atlantis will deplanet. Let me remind you that the City's shields have shields and her defensive capabilities are immense. Atlantis will not be endangered, but she has to be present. She's essential."

"It is my duty and my due to witness the fall of the Wraith and the fulfillment of my creators' dreams," the City volunteered in cool tones, confirming Rodney's words. "I will not be deterred in these matters."

"Understood, Atlantis. We want to be there, too," John Sheppard announced over the communications system, his voice firm as he jumped in to back Atlantis and Rodney, too. Daniel thought Sheppard might be looking at Rodney with different eyes, now, seeing possibilities he'd previously denied.

As far as Daniel was concerned, Sheppard could just keep looking.

"We share that dream," Rodney agreed very quietly, hand on a console like he couldn't not touch his City. Daniel grasped Rodney's free hand and extended his other to Shifu, who gave him a sweetly awed smile as the City accepted their offered comfort.

***

Not so surprisingly, every Athosian on the mainland wanted to be in Atlantis for the end of the Wraith. The City decided to give Lantea a stargate anyway after her Meredith remarked that he'd never thought it fair that the Athosians had to come through Atlantis to go off-world - that attitude had always smacked too much of American colonial imperialism to Rodney, although he'd never said so - and Atlantis herself had to agree, although she expected most of the Athosians would go home to Athos when the Wraith became a memory.

Fashioning the new gate out of her own bones was no great sacrifice. There were areas of battle and water damage that were easier rid of than rehabilitated, according to the self-repair subsystems now activated by the gifts of strength she'd received from her Meredith and their Agapitos Daan.

The City of the Ancients bore her great naquadah rings - and accompanying DHD - into the ocean, where they cooled and hardened into a living stargate system. A new design, form and function engineered by the dreams of her Tau'ri Ascendants, who valued the gates like few others in her vast memory; her new gate was beautiful, all elegance and light and inlaid crystal cartouches.

Freeing herself from the waters of Lantea, and with her Imperator in the command chair, Atlantis tractored the new gate system over to the mainland, ignored her Physicum Zelenka's startled "No, no, we did not know the City could do this!" then showed her Ascendants how installation was to proceed.

The Lantean stargate was emplaced and ready to use at the moment of her Meredith's seventy-eight minute mark.

Atlantis was satisfied.

***

"Yes, Doctor Weir, the SGC has been ... briefed ... on what is occurring in the Pegasus Galaxy and I can confirm the Asgard and the Nox are on their way."

Elizabeth could tell Hank Landry was irritated from the way his jaw clenched pugnaciously on the words, and she decided he'd been as summarily ignored in all the decision-making as she.

Not that she hadn't deserved to be, still wondering when her relationship with Rodney had become so ... adversarial. She realized she'd been feeling downright jealous and reminded herself to focus on the big picture.

"Thank you, General Landry. We have five civilians-" the rest had changed their minds about staying "-who want to come to the SGC. We are sending you a fully charged spare ZPM and I am transmitting a preliminary report on our current status and mission.

"We would like to request volunteers who are willing to come to Atlantis and assist. We anticipate retrieving culled humans from Wraith vessels."

"General O'Neill, Colonel Carter, and Master Teal'c are already on their way to Atlantis in the ... on Commander Thor's flagship and should arrive soon. Six additional teams and fifty Marines are en route on other Asgard ships. I understand Doctor Jackson is already with you."

Oh, yes, very irritated. At Daniel. Just looking at Landry was like peering into an ugly mirror. Elizabeth was embarrassed, abruptly deciding that she should throw her support at anything that pissed off Hank Landry just on general principles.

"Thank you, General Landry, we appreciate your assistance," she said very blandly, wanting badly to say _"Hello! We just sent you a fully charged ZPM! Send back a few more troops by Stargate, why don't you!"_

It occurred to her he probably thought this was becoming some kind of foothold situation.

Asshole.

"Where is Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard?"

"He's in the chair room, General Landry, where Atlantis wants him to be. You should be aware that with the presence of Ascended citizens in residence and restoration of full power, the City has regained sentience and has declared she is independent of the IOA, the SGC, and Earth. All current residents have been offered full citizenship and asylum."

She wished she could laugh when his startled eyebrows flew up his forehead like wind-driven tumbleweeds.

"Doctor Weir, how many Ascended are currently on Atlantis?" he asked after a long moment.

"Three at this time," she said when Atlantis silently provided that information to her laptop. "Doctor Jackson, his stepson Shifu, and Doctor Rodney McKay."

 **"What?"**

Oh, yeah. Epicaricacy. A wonderful word, much like schadenfreude.

***

As soon as the wormhole closed, Hank ran his hands over his head and closed his eyes, just so he couldn't see the red phone sitting there, waiting for him to explain all this to the President.

The next time he saw Jack O'Neill, Hank was going to make O'Neill sorry. O'Neill was supposed to be keeping Jackson under control; that's the reason why everybody turned a blind eye, didn't ask, didn't tell. Hank wondered what the hell O'Neill had done to fuck things up.

***

Shifu watched Daniel laugh with the Meredith of Atlantis and could not stop smiling. He had never seen Daniel so relaxed and cheerful; he thought perhaps this was the Daniel Jackson his mother had known, open, approachable, and loving, ready to tease and willing to touch. Reaching out, not solely to Rodney McKay, but to him, too ... an affectionate grip on the back of his neck, a squeeze to his shoulder, catching hold of his hand, a gentle hug.

All things Shifu had never known Daniel to do. All things he'd never known in his own life. He was grateful to experience them now, pleased for his good father's fortune.

Although he would like to know what Jack O'Neill had done to drive Daniel away.

***

Jack finally had a moment to himself. He stood and stared out at the wavering nothingness of hyperspace and thought about everything he'd done wrong with - and to - Daniel over the years and how he should have been less careless and more careful of his lover's heart. Another precious gift, like his Charlie. An opportunity to cherish something rare that he squandered like it meant nothing.

When it meant everything.

"Goddamnit, I should have learned my lesson the first time. Daniel's right, I am a stupid son of a bitch," Jack muttered to the universe, thinking himself alone.

Consequently, he nearly had a coronary when Teal'c replied.

"Daniel is often correct, O'Neill," Teal'c said, startling him all over again with the casual informality. Then again, Teal'c had been Daniel's friend almost as long as Jack. "Of which stupidity do you speak?"

"Oh, pick one, there's so many. Too many. Why didn't you kick my ass before I fucked it up?" Jack found himself asking, looking up into his large friend's dark eyes. Teal'c regarded him with exasperation - but with fondness, to Jack's relief - shaking his head, crossing his still massive arms over his still massive chest and regarding Jack with one lifted eyebrow.

"That may well yet happen, O'Neill. What did you do?" Teal'c wondered, looking at Jack much more kindly than Jack suspected he deserved.

"How long has Daniel been able to ascend and descend just ... whenever, like that?" He asked instead of answering.

"How is it that you do not know?" Teal'c asked, genuinely bewildered. "It is you to whom DanielJackson comes home. You are Kalach Cal Mah for one another."

"Calabash-" Jack pretended, buying time to integrate the startling news that Teal'c plainly knew about him and Daniel and just as plainly accepted it.

"Kalach Cal Mah. Soul sanctuary," Teal'c corrected sternly.

"Kalash Can Man-Cal Mah! Kalach Cal Mah!" Jack said, correcting himself pretty quickly when Teal'c glowered at him. "Soul sanctuary, huh? That's ... kind of pretty. Sappy, but pretty ... and one of the things I messed up, I guess," he said and hoped Teal'c would leave it at that.

"Then you were indeed stupid, O'Neill."

"Yeah. Say, did you ever hear of the Forty-Two Prophecies of Benin?"

"I have not."

"Benin was an Ancient. An ancient Ancient. He predicted the Goa'uld would fall and the Jaffa would be free."

That was something like numbers thirty-five and thirty-six.

Teal'c allowed his surprise to show with both eyebrows; the expression made Jack grin, especially when Jack wondered what Teal'c would say if Jack could tell him he would become Benin's forty-first prediction: the first Jaffa Ascendant.

"I could wish to have heard of this Benin some years ago. How do you know of him?"

"Thor," Jack explained shortly, turning his back on space in favor of inspecting his feet. "He ... put back some of the Ancient knowledge he took out after my popsicle imitation."

"What else have you learned?" Teal'c asked after a moment.

"Daniel- Daniel is- Thor says Daniel is ... the First One of the Fifth Race. Thor and Lya call him the Regestere Charus. It means- it means-"

"Must I shake you, O'Neill?"

"It means something like favored or beloved king. You believe that? Our Daniel? Some kind of ascended king?"

Teal'c kept silent for several minutes, obviously considering Jack's words, then lifted his head proudly.

"This I can easily believe."

"What?" came Carter's disbelieving voice as she walked in and gaped at Jack. "Daniel?"

"Now, see?" Jack pointed at her and tried to elbow Teal'c. He missed. "That was my reaction!"

"Better one you should grow past before you next greet the Regestere Charus," Lya said, entering behind Carter. Jack sighed. His nice, private little observation deck was quickly becoming Grand Central Station. Worse, it looked like he was about to get yet another lecture from yet another alien about how stupid he was, which he'd already noticed, thanks.

Lya was as close to frowning as Jack had ever seen the Nox woman get.

"Lya-" Carter began, skepticism written all over her tone. Jack stepped up and made a sharp movement with one hand, a field command demanding Carter's silence that she obeyed out of habit.

"Sam, it's the truth. Daniel is the first Tau'ri Ascendant. The First One of the Fifth Race," Jack's voice broke unexpectedly as he flashed on the Ancient prophet's actual words, so real and present inside his mind.

Lya's expression softened.

"'Shown thus to me, this child of the First World, the broken one, the sword forged in death, skin boiled from bone, this then is he, flesh become fire. This is he, the survivor, the transfigured one, this is he who will hew free our living generations. This is he, the opener of the ways, the First One of the Fifth Race. This is he, our ruler, our champion, our judge, our beloved, our peacegiver.

"'So have I seen him and so I die blessed,'" she quoted very quietly. "There is no mistake. Daniel Jackson is the Regestere Charus. I fail to understand how you can doubt it."

"Now, see?" Teal'c said to Jack and elbowed him in the ribs. Hard. " _That_ is _my_ reaction."

***

 _"My Imperator John Sheppard wishes to fly, my Meredith,"_ Atlantis informed Rodney privately. Since he could think of no good reason why they couldn't meet the Asgard from orbit, Rodney gave a mental shrug and agreed. _"He wishes also for your presence."_

"He what?"

"John wants to see you," Daniel interpreted very slowly and exaggeratedly, assuming a serious expression and laying one hand on his shoulder. "You should go. He's your friend."

 _"Apparently, he's trying to be,"_ Rodney thought and knew Daniel heard him. Wrapping his friend up in a hug, he developed an instant kink for the way Daniel's robes slid over Daniel's skin and rubbed his hands over Daniel's ass. "Mmm, this feels nice. _I can't wait to lay you down and push these up to your chest so I can suck you."_

 _"God, Rodney, yes."_

"How much time have we got?"

"Not enough for that," Daniel said regretfully, grinning at him when Shifu politely cleared his throat. Rodney grinned back, took Daniel's beautiful face in his hands and laid a long kiss on those perfect lush lips ... then ascended them with a fierce blast of pleasure that Atlantis effortlessly converted into zero point energy.

***

"Ohhh, shit," John said, squirming on the control chair despite his audience of Radek, Ronon, Teyla, and Lorne, all of whom were eyeing him interestedly. "Hey, come on, Atlantis, can't you shield that?" he complained, wishing heartily he could be alone long enough to adjust his uncomfortably trapped cock.

"To bear witness to willing ecstatic ascension is a great gift, my Imperator."

"It's ... kinda not our thing, culturally speaking, to-"

"Speak for yourself, Sheppard," Ronon interrupted. "Lotta cultures in this galaxy seek the blessings of the Bright Ones. Many babies spring from such times," he added, not hiding a smirk from John, who covered his face with his hands.

"I, too, have heard this," Teyla said with an audible smile.

"Oh, god."

"Just roll with the precedent, Sir," Lorne recommended. "Pegasus is as Pegasus does," he added under his breath with much long-suffering ... which was the moment the door shot open and Rodney floated in. John knew it was Rodney before Atlantis told him, although he couldn't say how he knew, exactly. Rodney's ascended form shone bright and pure as a miniature supernova, and John wondered helplessly if Rodney had been correct, yet again, when he'd accused John of having a thing for Ascended babes.

Then Rodney descended - naked! - and John was absolutely sure. He definitely did. He had barely enough time to notice _Chest! Nipples! Hair! Half-hard cock! Hung!_ before Rodney muttered "oh crap, let me try that again" and turned himself back into light.

"Whoa," Lorne said like his tongue was hanging out. Ronon gave a speculative "huh" at the same time, and John - to his subsequent horror, which at least took care of some of his relentless arousal - found himself hissing "Don't even think about it," while Teyla and Atlantis laughed at him.

Radek was ignoring them all, waving at the readings, all ready to scold Rodney like usual as Rodney de-ascended again, this time dressed in the most amazing blue robes and looking absolutely incredible in them, like some kind of royalty and fuck-me-now hot.

 _Oh, god damn, Rodney, you're going to kill me_ John thought, mentally groaning when his cock again ached to be straightened. Rodney shot him a startled look, his eyes incredibly blue in suddenly pink cheeks, and John was convinced Rodney had somehow heard him.

"Always with the grand entrance, McKay," Radek said, rolling his eyes.

"Well, obviously, I need to work on that-" Rodney began.

"Not from where I'm standing," Ronon drawled and drew Rodney's shocked attention long enough for Teyla to approach him and draw his head to hers.

"Rodney. You are well?" she asked, sweet voice concerned.

"I am, thank you, Teyla," Rodney whispered like he couldn't speak out loud, closing his eyes and leaning into her. "Thanks for worrying," he added as he straightened.

"What you, Daniel Jackson, and the City of the Ancestors are giving me- us-" Teyla beckoned at Ronon, whose expression grew thoughtful and grim as he nodded like he was paying tribute. "To see the people of this galaxy freed of the Wraith ... this is a dream we are born longing to have realized. Do not thank me. I must thank you, my friend."

Rodney held Teyla by the upper arms and kissed her cheek.

"I hope you know, you and Ronon are two of my reasons why," Rodney said with far more gallantry than John would have credited him capable before releasing her and turning to Radek. Radek handed him a data tablet Rodney promptly handed back. "I don't need it. Atlantis tells me directly. We have four fully charged ZedPMs, a fifth went to the SGC, drone production is underway and we're in orbit above Lantea's north pole. All our shields are intact - there are some crystals that need to be replaced, Atlantis is sending locations to your tablet, Radek - and Commander Thor of the Asgard will arrive in sixty-three minutes with General O'Neill and the rest of SG-1, oh joy. Ah, that is, the original SG-1, Teal'c and Carter, not Mitchell and Vala, thank goodness."

"Is Daniel okay?" Lorne asked Rodney then, reminding John that both men had known Doctor Jackson and General O'Neill for a number of years.

"Yeah, he is. He's with Prince Shifu, you know Shifu is here, right? Atlantis posted it."

Because Rodney told her to, John was suddenly convinced, knowing Rodney would be all about transparency and full disclosure.

"The Harcesis?" Lorne asked a bit doubtfully. Rodney flapped one hand at him to shut up - which certainly made those nice robes cling nicely to Rodney's nice broad chest, John noticed. A lot.

"Daniel's stepson," Rodney corrected, his voice firm.

"So this Prince Shifu, he's the Goa'uld Ascendant that prophet Benin wrote about?" Ronon asked interestedly. "Hey, I read. I even read parts of the prophecies," he said when John sat up in the chair - the exquisite torment finally softening his persistent erection.

If he just didn't look at Rodney, he'd be fine. Maybe.

That worked until Rodney answered Ronon.

"Yay you, Ronon! I suppose that is who Shifu is. Huh." Rodney's tone went a little distant and John had the idea Rodney was distracted by something in his own head. John had missed watching that. "I haven't reviewed all the prophecies, myself, so."

Rodney shrugged. John thought _shoulders, hnnng_ and tried to pay attention as Rodney went on.

"But that's not who Shifu is. He's so much more than that. He's the half-Abydonian, half-Tau'ri biological child of Sha're Jackson and the Egyptian scribe Apophis held hostage for thousands of years. At heart, Shifu's a good kid who's crazy about Daniel," Rodney tacked on, clearly trying to reassure Lorne.

Rodney's voice didn't sound like Rodney at all. A little hoarse and a lot lazy, like he was feeling fucked out. John supposed he might be, Ascended or not, and wished he was responsible.

"Doctor McKay, this thing about Daniel being some kind of-" Lorne tried next and Rodney cut him off.

"Believe it." He slanted a proud, happy smile in Lorne's direction that made John's chest ache. "Next time you're at Cheyenne Mountain, find out if anybody knows what happened to the Goa'uld. It's the best kept secret in the Milky Way. Not even the Asgard know yet."

'And I wish I'd been there' was written all over Rodney's face. John wondered precisely when he'd swung around and started looking again.

"Rodney, what are we about to do here?" He had to know. Rodney gave him a pained excuse for a smile that John would always recognize as false now that he'd seen a real one.

"There's five-sixths of a solar system inside a ... kind of spatial rift - that's remarkably imprecise - where Arcturus used to be. The rift was increasing in size, by the way. Left unattended, in about five thousand years it would have swallowed Lantea, Sateda, and Athos ... another ten thousand to eat up Earth and the Milky Way. So, you see, I destroyed the universe. I always suspected I could." Rodney's voice sounded even more wrong now, like the words were cutting his throat. "God forgive me."

"Rodney," John found himself out of the chair and clutching Rodney by his upper arms. The rest of their team was right there, too, Ronon putting one big hand on the back of Rodney's neck and Teyla snuggled into their sides. "You're an atheist," John reminded Rodney inanely, not at all prepared to pull Rodney into an actual hug.

His dick would kill him.

"Not so much, nowadays," Rodney said with a sigh, letting John put their foreheads together for a long, quiet moment. "Ascension is ... quite a revelation. Anyway." Rodney straightened. "The Wraith will be banished to those worlds. Their new home. They'll hibernate for about ten millennia, take another five to regain space travel then who knows how long to re-open the rift. Hopefully our descendants will be able to prevent that, if the Wraith are even capable of advancing their scientific knowledge to such a degree which is highly doubtful. And that whole energy-sucking thing will be genetically manipulated out of them just to be on the safe side.

"Atlantis will help transport Wraith to the planets and then help destroy their ships. Any culled people will be rescued, of course. My preference is by boarding party, by live humans instead of transport beam," Rodney finished, still looking at John. "Your call, but the transport beams might remind them of being culled, and..."

"Yeah, I agree. And. Atlantis has a transport beam?"

"Hey, anything the Asgard have, Atlantis has better," Rodney said loyally. "And we'll need to check the darts to see if any people are stored. We can do that after the Wraith are gone, though."

"They won't be dead," Ronon said, sounding none too pleased about it, either.

"They won't be dead," Rodney confirmed. "As good as, yes. Good enough, better than the Ancients managed, but I can't complain about the Ancients too much because most of the ones that are left are at Dorandas now, getting it ready for the Wraith and reversing the expansion of the rift."

"So Arcturus had to happen the way it happened in order for this to happen," John concluded, a little awed.

"I know. It's frightening, isn't it?"

"McKay, all the Wraith ships? All of them?" Lorne was shaking his head like he couldn't believe it. "That's ... a lot of fucking ships."

"That's the plan, yes. There won't be any more cullings ... that part's already started. That's what Shifu came to tell Daniel and me. Don't you military types ever check your inboxes? Atlantis is auto-updating each development in real time and she'd tell you out loud if you asked her." Rodney rolled his eyes when everyone stared at him. "It's not like we're doing this alone. The Nox, the Furlings, the Asgard, and almost every Ascended are also helping. All the advanced races, allies again, one big happy family. Thanks to Daniel."

"I want the Wraith dead," Ronon said, still audibly unhappy. Rodney reached behind him, covering Ronon's hand with his own.

"I know, and I don't blame you, but Daniel won't commit genocide. He can't. This way, he doesn't have to. Pegasus will still be free, just like the Milky Way is."

John thought about that and decided something instantly, the way he always did - on the toss of a mental coin - sure in his gut it was the right thing to do and to hell with the consequences. This was what he needed to do - what he could do - to show Rodney how much John trusted him, not wanting Rodney to ever doubt it, himself, or their friendship again. He also wanted to be right there with Rodney while they got rid of the Wraith.

"Don't leave me behind next time you ascend," John whispered, putting himself right back in Rodney's personal space, their bodies separated by only a few inches of warming air.

Rodney's mouth fell open and he would have staggered if Teyla and Ronon hadn't held him up.

"What?"

"Ascend me with you."

"Are you _serious?"_

Rodney sounded rocked, staring at him incredulously. John could feel how affected all three of them were, Teyla and Ronon huddling even closer, Ronon shielding them from the sputtering protest Lorne was making in the background.

"Shut up, Lorne. Yes, Rodney, I'm serious, unless you're going to tell me I have to meditate," John grinned, pleased beyond the telling of it when Rodney smiled back - really smiled - at him.

It felt just as fine as John suspected it would, giving him a sense of satisfaction he could feel echoing back from his City in a silent _Well done and done well, my Imperator._

"John ... no, no meditation, but you really should think about it a little longer. If it's what you really want-"

"Rodney. I don't have to think about it. Don't leave me behind. Don't leave me."

John would wonder, later, what kind of expression he'd had on his face. Tears welled up in Rodney's eyes and fell unashamedly as Rodney swallowed and took a deep breath.

Hands - Rodney's warm hands - on each side of John's head and he was being held for a penetrating - if watery - inspection.

"I won't leave you, John. You have my solemn word. Lorne, take the chair if Atlantis tells you to," Rodney ordered ... then Rodney started glowing, brilliant tendrils wrapping him up in light, sinking into his skin, taking his weight, filling him up with luminescent heat.

John reached-

-and Rodney gave John the tiny nudge he needed to make that jump, supervising as John converted matter into energy, entering this state of light and magic that had quickly become as natural to Rodney as breathing ... more so than that, even, given the allergies and varied injuries he'd suffered in his mortal life.

John's delight wove its way through him, a pure rush that made him feel like his brain was coming as John started discovering things - his consciousness was intact and they were _flying._

 _"It doesn't hurt."_

 _"John, why did you think it would?"_

 _"I don't know. Teer made it look so painful, I guess."_

Rodney couldn't help laughing, amused by the mockery in that mental voice as they left the chair room behind, passing effortlessly through decks and walls and bulkheads, buoyed up by their City's joy.

 _"This is so ... it feels so good. Different than I ... I'm inside you, Rodney. You're inside me. We're inside Atlantis. She's inside us. It's like sharing with-"_

 _"Chaya?"_

 _"-but this is better, Rodney. It feels better with you."_

If he'd been in his body, Rodney knew he'd be crying again. John was going to think he was a pathetic wimp.

 _"No, god, no, Rodney, never that. Please don't think that. Don't you get it? I- I love this. I finally get to see you, see who you are, how you feel ... there's so much I didn't know. Uh, this thing with Daniel Jackson-"_

 _"He's my friend, John. I'm his friend. We love each other, but the poor bastard's still in love with Jerk O'Neill and I-"_

 _"You what? You what, Rodney?"_

 _"I, uh, I kind of had, used to have, well, hopes. Hopes. I guess you could say I had hopes for somebody else."_

 _"Who?"_

 _"Somebody."_

 _"Katie?"_

 _"No! She was ... just a distraction from the person I really ... hoped for."_

 _"Come on, Rodney, I trusted you. Trust me and 'fess up."_

 _"I don't-"_

 _"Can't you tell me? God, not Carson-"_

 _"John, no. No, not Carson. Calm down. It was you, okay? I used to think-"_

 _"But you gave up. You gave up on me."_

 _"No, I gave up on 'us' and you did it first!"_

 _"Well, shit, Rodney. Guess you can't really lie like this, huh ... Look, I'm sorry. I got freaked out about losing you after you ... you died. And I didn't handle it very well."_

 _"So you decided to preemptively cut me out of your life in case I died again? Yeah, John, really good plan."_

 _"I know it was stupid. Atlantis was pissed at me, too."_

 _"Hey, none of that matters now. We're here, we're okay."_

 _"Are you okay? With me?"_

 _"I promise I am."_

 _"You love me."_

Well, there it was. It wasn't like Rodney had forgotten. Daniel might have muted his lonely misery and given him a reason to be alive when his favorite reason for living deserted him, but Daniel hadn't made him forget.

 _"Atlantis said you were heartsore. I'm sorry, Rodney. Trust me enough to tell me yourself,"_ John was begging. Rodney couldn't stand it, laying down the last of his mental defenses and letting all of himself show.

He felt more naked now than when he had skin.

 _"I do love you. I'm in love with you,"_ he corrected himself automatically, knowing he couldn't hide it, not here, not when they stood inside each other at the molecular level.

 _"Still?"_ And John sounded so _hopeful._

 _"Um, yeah. I've come to believe it's one of those 'always and forever' things, you know, in the traditional romantic way, not the obsessive stalker way,"_ he clarified just to hear John's laugh ring through them.

Rodney hadn't realized joining their ascended selves would feel so ... sexual ... given that he and John had never actually had sex. It felt like they were having it now, each buried far inside the other, bound by their ascended connections to each other and their City.

 _"I don't know, I think I could become pretty obsessed, Rodney. With you- with this- I'm_ flying. _You know how much-"_

 _"You live to fly. I know you do. I dream about flying, too. Flying, like this. With you."_

They were outside the City, now, above Atlantis, part of her shields. Part of her.

 _"Oh. That's. I, uh, love you, too. In case you didn't notice. I didn't ... notice, I mean ... until Atlantis started beaming me these images-"_

 _"She. What?"_

 _"Let me show you."_

 _" ... ... ohhh, I see. Wow, Daniel and I look hot."_

 _"You're telling me. I wanted that to be me."_

 _"Which one of us?"_

 _"Now that you mention it..."_ John flashed Rodney a rerun of one of images Atlantis had sent him, focused on Daniel, on the muscles moving in Daniel's back, ass, and legs as he fucked Rodney. _"He is ... impressive."_

 _"He is,"_ Rodney agreed, unspooling his memories into John's mind. Daniel, hot, sweaty, and hard, driving Rodney onto his toes with the force of each thrust, nailing his prostate and killing him with how good it felt. _"You want to be fucked like that?"_

 _"Think he would?"_ John teased and made them both laugh.

***

Apparently, seeing Daniel Jackson through ascended eyes - through Rodney's and Atlantis' eyes - meant being crazy about Daniel Jackson, too. John mentally shrugged and accepted it as given. It was hard to stay mad at the guy when Rodney cared so much about him ... and he made Rodney laugh, something John had missed with a hunger that astonished him.

God, he loved to hear Rodney laugh.

***

Atlantis was exultant, an honest glee that thrummed through all her citizens, startling many into unbidden laughter no matter what - or whom - they were doing.

Daniel was among those who laughed. His own connection to the City - and Atlantis was _his City,_ too - satisfied him as to the correctness of Rodney's actions in ascending John Sheppard. Atlantis had her Meredith and her Imperator, her Sea Lord and her Commander, united at last, heralding, with the coming of her Regestere Charus, her Agapitos Daan, a predicted era of intergalactic peace that all four of the once Great Races had long since forsaken.

So would she forsake them. Created by the Ancients, she would be theirs no longer; she and her loyalties belonged solely to the Fifth Race now, her honor to serve them as home.

 _"Thank you, Atlantis,"_ Daniel said most sincerely for both that sudden passionate throb of joy as well as the City's silent promises. He knew how much Rodney - and John - had suffered during the interminable time they'd been evicted from their City a few months previously. It meant a lot to know that would never happen again, that this was a home none of them would ever lose.

Daniel turned to Shifu and held out his hands, pleased when Shifu confidently placed his own hands in Daniel's grasp before ascending with him.

***

"Oh, god, I'm gonna embarrass myself," Evan Lorne groaned, writhing on the chair.

"Just roll with it," Ronon recommended, pressing Lorne's shoulders down as Teyla climbed into his lap. The lap that Radek Zelenka was helping Teyla undress, pulling Lorne's trousers down to his thighs, over his knees, baring his anxious erection.

The chair was warm against his bare ass.

"Pegasus is as Pegasus does," Teyla panted, easing herself down onto his cock, which Radek was bracing so she could slowly take him inside her. Moaning with disbelief, Lorne acknowledged there was a man's hand on his dick and he didn't care, glad Radek was keeping him from shoving his full length into Teyla's tight hot cunt.

"Those were your words, Evan," Teyla continued, stopping halfway to pull off her top, baring her exquisite breasts. He wasn't the only one who reached for them.

"And I was right, thank you ... oh, god!" There was a tongue on his thighs. Hands every fucking where. Teyla started moving on him and Ronon was biting his throat and fingering nipples.

Lorne forgot to be embarrassed.

***

 _"Thank you, Good Son. Give your Uncle Skaara my love."_

 _"Of course, I shall, Good Father. Thank you."_

 _"For what?"_

 _"For being well. Many feared for your state of mind after the Symbiote Removal. You were unhappy."_

 _"Not any more, Shifu. I'm not unhappy now."_

 _"Our family will be pleased by your good fortune in your Second. I know I am."_

 _"You are a good son, my Shifu. Hug Kasuf twice when you see him, once for your mother and once for me. Remember I love you."_

 _"Yes, Good Father. I love you, too."_

 _"We'll see each other again soon."_

 _***_

 _"Looks like you're missing a good time, John."_

 _"They can't be having this much fun no matter what they're doing."_

 _"Oh, I don't know. An orgy in the chair room probably comes pretty close to Ascension as far as fun goes."_

 _"You're kidding."_

 _"Atlantis can show you. Like this, look through her eyes..."_

 _"Whoa. And here I thought Lorne was straight."_

 _"Yes, he probably thought so, too ... Atlantis, sweetheart, can you tone it down a little? There seems to be an excessive number of ... questionable liaisons in progress all over the city."_

 _"Yeah? Who else? Wow, Rodney, lookit Elizabeth and Heightmeyer go! You know, Atlantis probably needed somewhere to put the extra energy."_

 _"Huh, that's- Atlantis?"_

 _"Optimizing re-fertilization of this sector of space is a sacred duty, my Meredith. I cannot mitigate the collateral effects until transmission is complete."_

 _"Collateral ... You're transmitting ... what, sex rays to the whole sector? That's ... okay, a little creepy, but, yes, I get why. Galactic repopulation. Carry on, then, but can we at least make sure the citizens are all up and dressed before the Asgard arrive? Wouldn't do for them catch everybody_ en flagrant. _"_

 _"Why not, babe, the Asgard go naked all the time. Show 'em what they're missing."_

 _"Oh, please, don't give the City ideas, Colonel. There are more than Asgard on that ship."_

 _"None shall pass our defensive shields, my Meredith, without your leave."_

 _"None shall pass. Rodney, she said-"_

 _"I heard, I heard ... what?"_

 _"It just ... feels so good to feel you laugh. I want- Rodney, babe, I want to be-"_

 _"I know. You need to know. I can't- I won't give Daniel up."_

 _"I'm glad to hear that, my Meredith."_

 _"Angel."_

 _"Getting the hang of this ascended stuff, John?"_

 _"Doc-"_

 _"Oh, I really think you'd better call me Daniel. Considering I'm about to do this. May I?"_

 _"I- uh, yeah ... Oh, god! That's- Daniel, you- you feel- oh, Rodney, he's- he's- in me, yeah, oh, god, feels so goooooood!"_

 _"Yeah. So hot. So beautiful together."_

 _"Ohhh. Rodney. That's a great idea- you- Can we- Daniel? All of us? Please?"_

 _"What, you'd take me to get to Rodney?"_

 _"Are you insane? I'd take you any way I could get you. Come on, Daniel, don't you ever look in a fucking mirror? When you're in your body, I mean."_

 _"He doesn't see himself right, John, and that jackass O'Neill hasn't helped things any."_

 _"Rodney! Not your business to tell!"_

 _"Daniel, darling, that's where you're wrong. I know that comes as a shock. Deal with it. John is_ my _Second. He's going to help me make damned sure that O'Neill doesn't hurt you again. And before you start arguing with me, let me remind you,_ I am your Second. No one _hurts you, my Agapitos Daan. No one, not ever again. If that means I need to personally teach Jerk how to act, I will."_

"We _will."_

 _"... all right."_

 _"All right? All right? Just like that? All right?"_

 _"Do you_ want _me to start arguing now, Rodney?"_

 _"No, I have a better idea. De-ascend us, beautiful King Daniel."_

 _"The Daniel Jackson is on approach."_

 _"Thank you, Atlantis. Send them a welcome, tell Thor to keep his shields up, and ask them to wait."_

 _"By your command, my Meredith."_

 _"Rodney! You taught her Monty Python and Battlestar Galactica?"_

 _"She didn't get that from just me, John! Yeah, laugh it up, glowboys. She thinks she's being funny."_

 _"She is!"_

***

"So, we're just supposed to keep the shields up and wait for them to get around to acknowledging us? That's ... rude."

"Atlantis herself has explained, O'Neill. The Regestere Charus and the Atlantean Ascendants have 'glowy business' to which they must attend."

"How long you gonna throw that up in my face, Thor?"

"I have not yet decided. Good buddy."

"Wait. Ascendants, plural?"

Jack supposed he shouldn't have been surprised when one of the Ascended chose that moment to appear. He looked at the glowy squidlike being and was immediately certain this wasn't Daniel, proven right when it solidified into an unfamiliar young man Jack didn't at first recognize.

A young man with Sha're Jackson's eyes, wearing Abydonian robes.

"Shifu?"

"General O'Neill. Commander Thor, 'permission to board', I believe, is the Tau'ri phrase?" Shifu bowed at Thor like Lya had and Thor bowed right back.

"Greetings, Prince Shifu. Permission granted. Welcome on board the Daniel Jackson."

 _Prince_ Shifu?

Thor and Shifu straightened. Shifu grinned at Thor, startling Jack with the cheerful affection the Harcesis beamed at the Asgard.

It chilled when Shifu's gaze turned to him. Shifu's head tilted to one side as he inspected Jack, dark eyes expressing confusion.

"What?"

"The emotions of the Tau'ri are complex and varied. The Tau'ri themselves cannot always explain them. How am I to judge what is genuinely felt and what is not?"

"Perhaps on empirical evidence," Thor suggested before Jack could speak.

"How they treat each other?" Shifu questioned, his tone so doubtful Jack suddenly got the point Shifu wasn't making directly as he continued, his voice soft and relentless.

"Young as I am, I know love. Love is the gift that lights the Great Path and eases our journey. My mother loved me. My Good Father Daniel loves me. Oma loves me. I love them. I would not harm them or see them injured by my own actions."

How could you hurt Daniel so? Shifu might as well have asked it out loud. Jack heard it clearly enough. Thor chose that moment to politely disappear, allowing them the courtesy of having this unexpectedly personal conversation alone.

It occurred to Jack that just like apparently everybody else in the galaxy, Shifu knew all about him and Daniel. Knew and didn't care.

Geez, Thor was so right to call them provincial. How often had Jack's own provincial attitudes injured Daniel where he didn't see it?

"Sometimes we don't know what we're doing until the damage is done," Jack replied very slowly, rubbing the back of his neck and feeling guilty again. "I want to fix things."

Shifu regarded him for a long moment, weighing him with Sha're's eyes, finally nodding, conveying a grudging hope that Jack was sincere. It was a familiar expression. Jack was pretty sure Sha're never thought he was good enough for Daniel, either.

"Daniel has changed. He is stronger, now, and better protected. Is it in you to play the supplicant, Jack O'Neill?"

"Yeah, kid, except I'm not playing." He was serious, but the declaration won him an actual smile.

***

John reclaimed his humanity with a hoarse cry, his orgasm thundering down on him as soon as he became flesh. Warm hands were stroking him, silky naked skin was pressed against both his sides ... Rodney swallowed the sounds that would have become a shriek when Daniel slid down his body and closed a hot wet mouth over John's cock, sucking out the last of a climax that had John turning himself back into light.

 _"Wanna try that again, formosareus?"_

He tried it again, slowly gathering his marbles, head rushing with occasional lightning strikes of pleasure as he settled back into his skin.

 _"What does that mean?"_

 _"Beautiful. Handsome. Fine of form and fair."_

 _"You're calling me beautiful?"_ John marveled, still gasping as he became fully corporeal. Purposefully making sure he was kneeling between Rodney's and Daniel's knees, he stayed just beyond the reach of their busy distracting hands. He was already halfway to coming again from merely looking at them. Daniel and Rodney lay spread out over a huge bed, wearing nothing but starlight and their own internal glow - a glow as visible to John now as if they were all still ascended. Both were more beautiful to him than anything he'd ever seen.

Daniel was licking his puffy lips like he could still feel John sliding between them, blue eyes hotly covetous as they lingered over John's face, chest and groin. Rodney was perched on one elbow, grin fiercely happy as he watched Daniel tantalize all three of them. He and Daniel were heavily aroused, cocks hard and dark with need, scrotums snugged tight, their skin flushed and damp and lovely.

John's mouth watered. He wanted them both rather desperately. It had occurred to him that he was now beyond the reach of the SGC; beyond 'don't ask don't tell' and all the frat regs. In ascending him, Rodney had freed him - freed _them_ \- in so many ways. He couldn't wait to start taking advantage of his manumission, and he knew who he had to ultimately thank for it.

He skimmed his hands along their thighs, enjoying the contrasts. Daniel had runner's thighs, long lean muscles twitching under silky, lightly-haired skin. The hairs on Rodney's thighs were coarser, the muscles thicker, delighting John's palm as he imagined having Rodney's big solid thighs wrapped around John's hips as John fucked him.

And Daniel fucked _him._ Yeah. Good plan.

Having decided on an eventual goal, John let his hands come down beside their hips so he could lean over and admire them both, approving length and girth and anticipating some very good times.

Parting his lips, John breathed them in, savoring the clean taste of their scents, ozone and musk, pre-come, sweat and lightning...

"Rodney," he whispered, rubbing the side of his face against Rodney's rigid shaft, marking himself with the slick evidence of Rodney's desire before allowing himself a brief suck. Rodney tasted like Lantea's ocean. "Kiss Daniel and save this for me."

Timing it, John took Daniel's cock deep in his mouth at the same time Rodney's tongue pushed through Daniel's lips, proud of them both when Daniel gave a soundless wail and started coming.

***

 _Oh, there's something wrong with this, with me, this is wrong, perverse and mean, to feel so good, knowing the whole time that your lover is only seconds away while you're making love to two other men..._

 _"The hell there's something wrong!"_ Rodney raged directly into Daniel's head, halting his guilt-ridden post-coital thoughts in their tracks. _"The son of a bitch ought to be taking lessons! Maybe he'd finally learn a thing or two!"_

"Rodney."

 _"He's right,"_ John chimed in without taking his mouth off Daniel's cock, which was hard again, having never really softened. Warm pulses of arousal washed through Daniel with every lazy suck, John's open enjoyment of what he was doing meliorating psychic wounds Daniel had to - hated to - admit he'd suffered.

He wasn't suffering now. Rodney's strong callused hands were on him, one holding his wrists down over his head and the other stroking his chest, teasing his nipples and occasionally patting John's hair.

"I'm always right and you know it, honeybunch," Rodney replied with pretended complacency, mouthing that spot just under and behind Daniel's ear that made Daniel want to writhe and moan - so he did, feeling his cock slide further down John's hot tight throat.

"Oh, god!"

 _"Don't come yet, don't come, angel. John wants you to fuck him. He wants you to fuck him hard."_

Daniel couldn't have stopped, except Rodney half-ascended them just enough to dislocate their physical responses, somehow keeping Daniel right there at the peak without going over, mind enraptured for long moments while his body calmed and reformed.

 _"John? You- really want that? Want me?"_

 _"Oh, yeah, just like you did Rodney. Please, King Daniel, use your unworthy servant,"_ John agreed, teasing, sharing mental pictures with Daniel that made Daniel whimper with need. Pictures Atlantis herself had send John, of Daniel fucking Rodney into the wall ... fantasies of John's own, of Daniel driving into his ass and pushing him deep into Rodney. _"I want you to fuck me like you own me."_

Daniel grabbed a fistful of unruly dark hair and pulled until he had John Sheppard up and turned beneath him. Hand still controlling John's head, Daniel bared John's throat to his mouth.

 _"Make no mistake, my Imperator. I do,"_ he declared before sinking his teeth into stubbled warm skin and sucking hard, drawing blood. Leaving a mark.

***

Rodney was discovering a brand new kink - he seriously liked to watch.

More specifically, he liked to watch Daniel and John, who was currently displaying some very pretty natural submissiveness, spreading his legs, lifting his chin, and visibly melting while Daniel was biting him.

Rodney was particularly liking watching Daniel, who was finally acting like who he was, a literal master of the universe, his long lithe body covering John and holding John down, taking his due.

John squirmed and whined to get closer, obviously loving what Daniel was doing to him. Through ascended perception, Rodney could feel John's thrilled, slightly shocked rush of hunger, fueled by John's growing, aching need to be filled. Fucked. John wanted very much to be owned by them, used ... and he had definite ideas about how he'd like them to do it.

Plainly in favor of John's ideas, Daniel lifted himself to his hands and knees and waited for John to look at him. John's gorgeous eyes, heavy and dark, blinked open and slowly focused on Daniel as John came down from his intense high.

"John." _Are you sure?_

 _Yes, god, Daniel, fuck me._ "Yours, my King," is what John rasped, like an order and nothing like submission.

"Oh god," Rodney heard himself swear, about to come without even touching his dick. He had to ascend himself for a few seconds just to keep from shooting. When he got back in his body, Daniel was urging John to turn over, hands on John's hips positioning John's ass in the air so he could kneel behind it. "Oh, god!" Rodney said again, glad for human vision and the sight before him.

"Rodney, I need lube," Daniel pronounced, licking his fingers and rubbing them over John's hole, while John wiggled and moaned and pushed into Daniel's touch.

"So not a problem," Rodney gasped and let himself come, the climax flaming through his spine and blasting out of his balls. Careful to maintain his corporeality, Rodney caught his ejaculate in his palm and moved closer when Daniel beckoned.

 _"Oh, good idea, my Meredith. Get him ready for me?"_

 _"Kiss me first, angel,"_ Rodney begged shamelessly, laughing into Daniel's mouth when Daniel gave him a passionate, open-mouthed kiss, demonstrating how he wanted Rodney to tongue-fuck John's ass-

 _"-not that you need lessons, Rodney."_

 _"And what are you going to be doing while I'm kissing John's ass yet again?"_ Rodney teased, ignoring John's insulted _"Hey!"_ Daniel closed a warm hand over Rodney's half-hard cock and Rodney couldn't keep from groaning when his erection firmed.

His balls ached.

 _"I can get you ready for him,"_ Daniel promised, sucking on Rodney's bottom lip.

The ache transmuted instantly from pain to want.

***

John didn't know he could make the sounds that were tearing out of his throat as Rodney's tongue stroked over his asshole and teased its way inside him. He dimly suspected that somebody else might call them screams, especially when Rodney put a grip on the base of his cock that kept him from ejaculating - but not from climaxing - while Daniel somehow kept him from ascending. It felt that good.

Then slippery fingers were pushing deep inside him and John knew he was going to have to readjust his mental scale. Nearly convulsing with sharp stabs of ecstasy as his prostate was stroked, the only words he could think of were _please yes now._

Something larger, harder ... _finally, yes!_ ... the intense blunt pressure slowly seared John from the inside out. He figured he was howling, the pleasure agonizing as Daniel entered him, hands like vises on his hips, holding him together. Daniel filled him at a steady inexorable pace, splitting him in half, and he was still crying for more, loving every bit of that burn.

Because this was just how John wanted it, even though he'd never realized before right this minute that he wanted _this._ He hadn't known his body could take that pain and convert it into something that felt this intensely good, just like he hadn't known how much he wanted to feel claimed. Possessed. Mastered.

No longer in charge.

"Magistere, Magistere, precateus summe," he called out, using the Ancient words Atlantis politely supplied when he deliriously asked. _Master. Master. I entreat thee._

"Oh, god," Daniel ground out, going still. _"Don't move don't move - how did you know? I didn't know how much- my god, that turns me on."_

 _"It turns me on to say it,"_ John confessed, taking this newest wrinkle in his psychosexual profile as philosophically as he was trying to take everything else that had happened to him today. It was what it was. His ass was on fire, the heat throbbed through his entire body, and he could barely resist the urge to push back onto Daniel's cock, waiting impatiently for Daniel to finish inching his way into bottoming out. "Magistere."

"John," Daniel swore his name like an oath, helping him kneel up so Daniel could rub a hand over his lower belly. The change in angle pushed Daniel's cock against John's prostate, and John let out a hoarse, rattling sob. "I feel me in you, my John," Daniel whispered into his hair, rocking in and out of John in shallow strokes. John laid his head back on Daniel's shoulder and invited Daniel to chew on his neck some more ... then Rodney's mouth closed over the end of his cock and John lost his mind.

Loudly.

***

Atlantis effortlessly channeled her Imperator's wild energy, letting it pass through her - and her citizens - before she directed it outwards, into the galaxy. Transmuting it into a Mother's call to her children - _"Procreate!"_ \- Atlantis shuddered under the power that pulsed through her when her Meredith climaxed and joyfully ascended, throwing himself into her with the incredible, incomparable enthusiasm for which she so adored him. Her Rodney, shouting his laughter down the corridors of her hidden heart ... she shook again when John made the leap to join them, sharing their pleasure.

The Agapitos Daan followed soon after, his brilliant puissance magnifying Atlantis' efforts, helping her reseed life into dead planets and dying populations parsecs away.

Entropy had held sway in Pegasus long enough. No more.

And if she spared a few units of sapient electromotive force to administer examples to one particularly thick-headed Tau'ri, well, her Ascendants should have anticipated she would take them literally.

***

Thanking heavens that the Asgard actually had closets - or rather, storage compartments - Jack shut himself up inside one and slid down to the deck, legs too weak to hold him up against the images pouring into his head.

Oh, god. Daniel. Jack couldn't decide whether to puke or stick his hand down his pants. He was hard as a rock.

Daniel. Daniel kissing McKay, frenching McKay's mouth, fondling McKay's cock. Daniel, fingers buried in John Sheppard's ass ... Daniel fucking Sheppard; Daniel fucking like some kind of _god,_ muscles moving under sleek skin, rippling with every thrust ... Daniel _owning_ Sheppard, and Sheppard- Sheppard begging Daniel for it, pushing hungrily onto him and pleading for more. Utterly and absolutely surrendered to everything Daniel was giving him, everything Daniel was making him feel, Sheppard made no bones about wanting Daniel, strong enough, brave enough to offer himself in trust.

 _Does Sheppard look weak? Is he weak? Hardly. He's a tough son of a bitch, one of the toughest I know. So what the hell have I been so afraid of? And look at McKay..._

McKay, blissfully sucking Sheppard's cock, so completely aroused by what he was doing that he climaxed right after Sheppard - his own cock untouched - and effortlessly transformed into a brightly glowing, floating squid, flowing over Daniel and Sheppard like a blanket of light.

 _Did McKay look debased? Disgusted? Sick? Used? Does he look like ascending is hurting him any?_

Jack had rarely felt like more of a coward in his life than he did right now. Only a few times had he been this aware of having fucked up this monumentally and in so many ways. Jesus, the whole ascended issue aside, how much Daniel must have loved him, to so thoroughly subvert all those natural instincts and settle for being Jack's bottom-boy. Daniel was never sexually aggressive with him. He didn't _know_ the Daniel Atlantis was showing him: confident of his reception, demanding, powerful, and in complete command.

Jack didn't know this Daniel, but he wanted to.

 _"Perhaps it is not too late for you,"_ a voice announced inside his head that Jack immediately recognized even though he'd never heard it.

 _"Atlantis. Why? Why do this, why show me this? What are you after?"_

 _"My Meredith wished you to learn. And so you should, for you, too, are my child, my Bellator Jonathan O'Neill. Your home is here, my Jack. Here, with my Meredith and my Imperator and our Regestere Charus, our Agapitos Daan. I would have all my children return from the First World. It is time."_

 _"All ... the gene carriers? On Earth? And 'Bellator'? Warrior,"_ Jack translated, aware when Sheppard and then Daniel ascended, feeling them through Atlantis as she leaked their excess sexual energy into his nervous system.

"Oh, shit." Forgetting the gene carrier thing, Jack couldn't have stopped his hand for less than a Jaffa with a staff weapon, and maybe not then. He unbuttoned his fly and reached in. His stiff cock practically jumped into his palm. _"Oh, god, I'm not doing this on Thor's ship,"_ but he was damned if he could let himself go.

 _"As you say. You should never have left me anyway,"_ Atlantis informed him, subvocally grumbling about Alterans and Replicators and how much she'd missed her Imperator and her Meredith while they'd been gone.

A little preoccupied with trying not to stroke himself, Jack was taken unawares when his surroundings disappeared in familiar white light.

***

 _"Atlantis, sweetheart, what the hell are you doing?"_ Rodney asked his City, appalled when she reached out and plucked Jack O'Neill right off the  Daniel Jackson and transported the general into their tower room.

O'Neill would be waiting there alone. Rodney, John, and Daniel were out touring Atlantis and checking on the citizens, most of whom were unconscious - in a variety of compromising positions - but physically fine.

Rodney thought he'd quite like to see Lorne's face when he woke up with Ronon's cock still up his ass.

 _"Resolution is required. The Bellator Jack O'Neill is also mine."_

 _"Atlantis-"_ Rodney began, irritated by this sudden obduracy.

 _"No, she's right, Rodney,"_ Daniel interrupted. _"No more hiding. You and John get ready to take the City to Dorandas; ask Thor to follow us there. I'm going to go talk to Jack."_

 _"Daniel-"_

 _"Rodney, I promise, you'll know if I need you,"_ Daniel assured him, sliding thought and truth inside him with a gentle push of ascended energy. _"Jack can't hurt me unless I let him."_

 _"Then don't let him,"_ Rodney demanded, worried that Daniel would return to the cut-up, subdued state he'd been in on first arriving in Atlantis.

 _"I promise, my Meredith. I'm not afraid of losing him anymore. That's your gift to me, okay?"_

 _"Daniel,"_ Rodney breathed in his soul, loving his friend a great deal for saying that, sure he'd be sniffling again if he were corporeal. _"Thank you."_ John's energy surrounded them then, warm and soothing. Rodney felt much calmer by the time Daniel left them.

 _"Come on, babe, let's go to the chair room and watch Lorne wake up,"_ John urged.

 _"God, good idea,"_ Rodney replied happily. _"Yeah, let's go."_

Daniel would handle himself just fine, Rodney had faith.

Besides, Atlantis herself would be watching and would make sure Jerk treated Daniel right.

***

Daniel was radiant in his ascended form; Jack knew right away it was him. Crossing fingers, Jack was hoping Daniel would soon be standing there naked.

He could work with naked Daniel, although his own arousal had promptly faded with the shock of finding himself unexpectedly on Atlantis.

Frustrating then disturbing him, Daniel de-ascended wearing his Abydonian robes, looking unexpectedly remote, untouchable as a star.

"Danny. I didn't do anything with Sa-"

"I know you didn't," Daniel spoke over him, tone resigned. "I figured that out, Jack."

"When?"

"After I saw you on Thor's ship. You were unconscious at the time," he said, voice magnificently wry.

"Yeah, Thor mentioned you stopped by to check on me. Thanks," Jack drawled, buying himself a few moments to review the timeline of recent events. He set aside the whole Ancient prophecy crap for later discussion. It wasn't the priority. His relationship with Daniel was. And if Daniel hadn't known until he saw Jack that Jack hadn't cheated on him, that meant the first time Daniel slept with McKay, he did it believing Jack had already been unfaithful.

Jack let that little factoid soak in and reminded himself about how hurt Daniel must have been and how much he must have needed somebody who'd stand by him. Jack wouldn't have thought Daniel would find that person in Rodney McKay, but the things Atlantis had shown him had revised his opinions some.

"So. You and McKay."

"Yeah," Daniel said, his attitude becoming wary.

"Soooooo? You know I didn't cheat on you,"

"So, I can't say the same." Those blue eyes were a little hard as they looked at him, and Jack picked his reply very carefully, scrubbing his tone clean of any accusation.

"I know about McKay ... and Sheppard. That you ascended them and that you're ... uh, sleeping with them."

"And you know this how, exactly? Ah, Atlantis. There is such a thing as meddling too much, you know," Daniel informed the City under his breath but Jack heard. "To be strictly accurate, Rodney had already ascended himself once and he's the one who ascended John."

"McKay's your Second."

"And John is his. They're Fifth Race Atlanteans now. Like me. You're angry."

"Not saying I'm not ... but Daniel? I'm trying to understand and I can't really say I ... blame you. Much." Jack cleared his throat and worked to get the words out. "I haven't been- I haven't- You haven't been getting what you needed from me. I'm sorry for that."

Daniel gave him a startled look before pacing towards the balcony doors and staring out into space.

"That wasn't your fault."

"Wasn't it? I could have made more of an effort."

"That's the problem, Jack. Being with me is an effort for you. Everything about our relationship takes effort. It's a departure. An abnormality. Deviance from the norm." Daniel had drawn himself up to his full height, chin high as his measured words fell calmly. His cool level voice sent chills up the back of Jack's neck.

"I'm the one who owes you an apology. It was truly unfair of me to seduce you. Unfair and wrong, and believe me, I'm sorry. It was very kind of you to attempt such an aberrant relationship with me, though. Why don't you just call it a midlife crisis and go on with your life. If you and Sara don't work out, I'm sure Sam will still be there."

Imagining cartoon balloons over his head going _Pow! Smack! Wham!_ along with one snarling _"Meow!",_ Jack bore up beneath Daniel's impassive little tirade, sat down on the edge of the bed, and contemplated putting his lover over his aching knees.

"Kind, huh." He tried not to grind his back teeth. "Aberrant."

"You gave it a good shot, Jack. You humored me," Daniel said earnestly, as if Jack ought to be proud. "No hard feelings."

"Ya think," he said doubtfully, clasping his hands behind his back and bouncing on his ass just to keep from leaping up, grabbing Daniel by the shoulders, shaking the snot out of him and showing him hard feelings. "So. We're over, just like that, because you say we are."

"Don't you want us to be?" Daniel asked, genuinely bewildered. "You can go back to-"

"Daniel, so help me God, I'll kick your ass if you say the word 'women' or worse, Carter's or Sara's names. I'm grateful for Sara's friendship but our marriage is over and you know that. Her being with me was completely innocent," Jack insisted, keeping his own voice even through sheer force of will. He was becoming aware he was in for a helluva fight if he wanted to hang on to Daniel. Daniel _wasn't_ fighting, scaring Jack all over again. Daniel had given up on them. "I don't want to go back to Sara or be with Carter. You're all I want, Daniel."

"You've never wanted me, Jack," Daniel said without looking at him. "Not really."

Jack took a slow, deep breath, set his elbows on his knees and stuck his head in his hands.

"I'm sure it looks like that from your perspective," he eventually remarked, choking the words out of his suddenly dry mouth. He didn't look at Daniel, either. His eyes were stinging too much to open. "And that _is_ my fault, because it's not true. I'm in love with you, Daniel. I do want you, and I don't want to lose you."

Jack did peek then, looking at Daniel between his fingers. Daniel staggered backward until he hit a wall that he promptly turned into, hiding his face from Jack like a child huddling into his mother. Jack could _feel_ the mental arms Atlantis put around her Agapitos Daan, the City telling him very clearly that he'd better watch his step.

 _"He does not believe you,"_ he was silently informed. _"He wishes to know where you hid the pod."_

 _"Well, that's nice. Now, butt out, Lady. This is personal, between Daniel and me, get it?"_

 _"Hmph,"_ Atlantis thought at him then subsided, letting Jack give Daniel his full attention. Daniel was recovering quickly, spine and shoulders straightening, face once again composed. Jack could practically hear him thinking _deny the battle_ and decided to take it to him.

"I'm not giving up on us, Spacemonkey. Know who taught me about not giving up? You did. You can teach me what you want when we make love. I can learn."

Daniel gasped. Jack chose to take it as a sign of hope that he could still stir Daniel and finally got up off that damned bed. He approached Daniel slowly, half-afraid of spooking him, and was suddenly revisited by the memory of Shifu's question.

 _"Is it in you to play the supplicant, Jack O'Neill?"_

It was in him to do whatever it damn well took.

Ignoring the creaks and pops in his knees, Jack went to them willingly, reaching out to pull Daniel against him. He locked his hands behind Daniel's ass and pushed his face into Daniel's robes, nuzzling his lover's firm belly.

"Give me another chance, Danny. Please."

"Jack." Daniel's hesitant hands fluttered to rest, one on Jack's shoulder and the other curled around the back of Jack's head ... as if to protect him, Jack thought, from his own out-of-character behavior. "Jack, you don't have to-"

"Oh, yes, I do," Jack cut him off grimly. "You're more important to me than anything else. You'll never doubt that again."

"Your career-"

"You, Daniel. You're numero uno. I resigned before I left."

"You resigned-"

"Left it all behind, gave it up, walked out on the Air Force, Homeworld Security, the Pentagon, the SGC, and I missed my Girl Scout cookie delivery, too. I'm all yours, for better or worse. I'm shooting for better now that I've got my head out of my ass," Jack kept his tone light, trying not to overthink the way Daniel was helplessly responding to his proximity. Daniel's rising arousal was bulging under his robes and prodding Jack just beneath the chin.

For just an instant, Jack was confronted by ugly memory, then the images were gone and his senses - as well as Atlantis - were sharply reminding him this wasn't one of his Iraqi jailers. This was his Daniel, whose robes smelled like an Abydos that existed no longer. Daniel, touching his hair so devotedly. Daniel, whom he loved, warm and alive in his arms, and he was damned grateful he still turned Daniel on.

He squeezed Daniel harder and heard Daniel gasp above his head, the hand on his shoulder tightening painfully before Daniel yanked it away, trying his best to back out of Jack's embrace, not that Jack was letting him.

"Let me go. And get up. This has to be hell on your knees."

"I'm not done begging you to forgive me, so just hold your equines, would ya?"

"Jack..." Daniel went still. Jack looked up in time to catch Daniel wiping wet eyes. "Damn it, Jack. Damn you."

"Please, Danny." Jack wasn't kidding about begging. "Hey, if you ascend me, it'll fix my knees, right?"

Daniel gaped at him, thunderstruck, hands stalled in mid-reach for Jack's shoulders.

"Did Thor do something else to you after I left?" he asked suspiciously and Jack rolled his eyes.

"No, Daniel."

"Is Atlantis influencing you?" Daniel passed his now glowing hands over Jack's head, leaving a stir of warmth that made Jack sigh with pleasure.

"No, Daniel. You are. I want to be where you are, no matter where that is, whatever plane of existence. It's that simple."

Daniel knelt too. Jack didn't loosen his arms, so Daniel ended up pressed into him from neck to knees, which suited Jack just fine. Daniel was still more than half-erect and getting harder, like Jack himself, who pushed back against Daniel's supple body and appreciated all that solid strength.

Daniel's hands - flesh and bone again - finally came to rest high on Jack's shoulders, Daniel's thumbs moving over his throat. Opening his eyes - and none too sure when he'd closed them - Jack met Daniel's watery gaze and tried to put his heart in his eyes.

"I love you, Daniel."

"Wow, that's ... twice in one day. I don't know if my ... my heart can stand ... stand ... oh, my Jack." Daniel's mouth traveled over his cheek and sought his lips, tongue licking over them hungrily. Jack opened his mouth and let Daniel kiss him the way Daniel wanted to, with lots of limber tongue, sucking, and possessive little nibbles and hums that made Jack wish they were naked on the bed.

Daniel pulled away and hauled in some air; apparently breathless, Jack was pleased to note. Then Daniel was shaking his head and regarding Jack with an odd little smile curving those lush, kiss-swollen lips. Jack wanted to dive right back into that sweet mouth, but he wasn't finished pointing out the obvious to Doctor Jackson.

"You love me, Daniel."

"And? So? Therefore?" Daniel stalled. He still wasn't entirely convinced he and Jack were good for each other, no matter how good they felt together. How good Jack felt.

"And, so, therefore, you haven't stopped. You don't."

A bit shaken by Jack's confident declaration, Daniel pulled himself away - before he couldn't - and this time, Jack allowed it. He merely held up one hand when Daniel stood so Daniel could help him rise, grunting when his knees audibly popped. Wincing at the flash of pain he could see in Jack's eyes, Daniel castigated himself for not doing something about Jack's problem a lot sooner.

"I can fix your knees without ascending you," he volunteered. Not daring to take Jack at his word, Daniel tucked himself into Jack's side and drew Jack's arm over his shoulder, turning them towards the bed. "I should have offered a long time ago."

"I probably would have been an asshole about it if you had. Look, Daniel, I still want you to ascend me. Aht! Listen up, now. My chief objections were the no interference thing, the idea of me going around spouting the tao of useless Oma-isms, and that whole not having a body deal. None of that seems to apply to your Fifth Race Ascendants," Jack added, dragging Daniel along when Daniel's feet forgot how to walk.

"It's uncanny how much you look like Jack O'Neill," Daniel pronounced slowly, letting Jack get them as far as the side of the bed before he shrugged off Jack's arm and sat down, rubbing his eyes. Christ. Half an hour with Jack and he was exhausted. Not for the first time, Daniel wished he didn't care so much.

So complicated.

"You're a sarcastic son of a bitch, you know that?" Jack pointed out, reaching out and catching Daniel's hand, twining their fingers together comfortably. "Good thing I like that about you."

"Atlantis, what's the ETA of the first hiveships to Dorandas? And ours?" Daniel asked the City, trying to ignore Jack's familiar warm grip and that equally familiar determination. Jack meant everything he'd been saying. Even if Daniel hadn't been able to tell with ascended perception, Atlantis was humming along in the back of his mind, confidently informing him that her Bellator was speaking truths.

"Fifteen hours for the first Wraith, my Agapitos Daan. Their ships are slow. We shall be there long before."

"Great! We have plenty of time!" Jack said brightly.

"Time for what?"

"Lessons!"

That had Daniel up and off the bed, yanking his hand out of Jack's, needing the distance. Needing to think. Jack started to come after him and Daniel held up his hand, stopping Jack at the side of the bed.

"No. You don't have to change for me, Jack. You don't have to prostitute your ass to me to get me to hang around, either. I'll still be your friend."

Jack stopped in his tracks, his fingers curling at his sides.

"You know what, you better be glad you're over there. That was uncalled for, Daniel."

Shamed by the hurt scold of Jack's voice, Daniel started pacing around the large room and let his long strides ignite his temper.

Uncalled for. Jack hadn't heard uncalled for yet.

 _"Brace yourself, my Bellator,"_ Jack heard Atlantis warn, glad after all that she hadn't listened to him and left them alone.

He'd had just enough time to set his mental jaw when Daniel turned to face him in a swirl of pale robes and glittering eyes. Daniel was fighting now. Fighting to get Jack to quit on him, like that was ever going to happen in any reality Jack inhabited.

"Look, Jack, I said friends and I meant it. We'd be better off. I don't need sex from you. I can get it elsewhere and you won't have to make the effort."

Apparently Daniel had gotten his second wind and it was on again.

Jack considered tactics.

"I know you can. Did I tell you-" _show him, Atlantis_ "-you looked so fucking hot buried in Sheppard's ass ... I bet he was tight, god, he must have felt wonderful ... you were beautiful together, Danny. Look at Sheppard's face ... he wants you so much and you're giving it to him sooo good. I saw and I thought - that should be me with your dick up my ass, and it would have been if I wasn't such a stupid, selfish coward."

"Jack, no!" Daniel protested. Successfully ambushed with arousal then concern for Jack, Daniel came right towards him - Jack congratulated himself - and hesitantly took his outstretched hand.

Jack flashed on the confident Daniel he'd seen thanks to the City's pictures: the Daniel who reached out knowing his touch was welcome, the Daniel who hadn't hesitated to demand a response from the men he was gracing with his attention. For the first time, it occurred to Jack to wonder if Daniel might be right to question whether or not they should remain lovers.

Then he thought _Bullshit!_ and yanked Daniel down with him as he fell backwards onto the bed.

***

 _"You're worried."_ John could feel it rumbling along at the back of Rodney's mind like an engine running rough, a low disharmonic warning.

 _"Atlantis is worried, too,"_ Rodney pointed out a little defensively. _"She keeps asking questions."_

 _"Atlantis?"_ John slid into that headspace where he could hear what the City was asking Rodney, not reassured when he realized she wanted to know what defined non-consensual and if the definitions applied when an individual was being seduced or coerced into behavior that was against better judgment but not precisely against the will. _"Shit."_

 _"I know. I don't like what this implies. Atlantis, show me Daniel and O'Neill."_

 _"The Agapitos Daan and my Bellator would not approve, my Meredith."_

 _"Do it anyway, sweetheart. Please. I'm his Second. I have to protect him,"_ Rodney insisted, glowing twice as brightly as he reached for his City and poured himself into her, John going along for the ride.

Rodney could put his ascended self inside Atlantis and be - almost instantly - anywhere in the City. John suspected this wasn't your average ability even for Ascended. It was a talent that didn't come so easily to him although he had picked up on it pretty quickly with Rodney's initial tutelage. Aside from being a crazy mad rush, the tactical advantage of being able to ascend and immediately go anywhere within Atlantis was huge ... but what made it precious to John was the fact that Rodney was sharing it all with him.

Because Rodney really did love him. Obsessively, deathlessly, almost despairingly, with little of the cheerful devotion Daniel Jackson inspired. Deep inside his soul, Rodney regarded John with more like fearful awe, still shocked that John wanted any of this at all, let alone from him; still surprised that John was even still there and didn't John know he could go anywhere now. Including Proculus.

Silently reminding Rodney that he was here because he wanted to be with _Rodney,_ John looked with him through their City's eyes; looked into their tower room at General Jack O'Neill lying sprawled on their bed. Daniel was on top and getting the shit kissed out of him, moaning something that sounded a lot like - no.

John blinked. Daniel wasn't exactly melting into the kiss and was not at all relaxed, doing his best to keep his weight off O'Neill despite the grip O'Neill had on him.

And John could hear the protests Daniel couldn't make out loud ringing in his mind.

Without waiting for Atlantis to 'let' him, John yanked Rodney into the room and ascended Daniel right out of O'Neill's arms.

"Goddamnit, Daniel!"

 _"Goddamnit, John!"_

 _"Daniel, John did the right thing! You wanted O'Neill to stop! Christ, you were saying no! That may not mean anything to Jerk O'Neill but it means something to us!"_

Rodney wrapped himself around them both and swooped them out of the room, taking them to another empty tower room before de-ascending them all - naked, John noticed - to stand in a close, three-way embrace.

"Daniel," John begged hoarsely against the anger he could feel in Daniel's shaking form, grateful for Rodney's arms around them both when Daniel let out a string of curses in some language John was pretty sure he was glad he didn't know. _Please don't be mad at me_ is what he wanted to say, faced with the fire snapping in Daniel's brilliant blue eyes.

Maybe he did say it, because Daniel's face crumpled. He laid his head on John's shoulder and let out a shuddering sigh, gradually allowing himself to lean on them both.

"John." Daniel's aggravation had died away. "Thanks. I did want time to think. I could have ascended myself, though."

"No, you wouldn't. You're as scared to ascend in front of O'Neill as you are of fucking him."

"Gee, thanks for being blunt, baby," Daniel said, turning his face in Rodney's direction and blowing a kiss Rodney made a reality, the kiss much gentler than Rodney's words. John couldn't help but grin, enjoying the warm sensation of Daniel's forgiveness, shared with Daniel's boundless ascended energy.

 _"He says he wants me to do both. Ascend him and fuck him."_

 _"You don't believe him?"_ John asked, wondering what made O'Neill's request so unreasonable.

 _"The last time I touched his ass he flinched,"_ Daniel admitted silently.

 _"And you call me blunt. John, O'Neill was raped when he was a POW in Iraq. Gang-raped multiple times. He has problems."_

 _"Rodney, how the hell do you know that?"_

 _"Atlantis told me. And I've read his file."_

That won another sequence of irritated and inspired cursing. John recognized some of the Arabic and had to laugh when Daniel called the City a female camel who put her giant smelly nose in everyone's business.

 _"Atlantis would also tell if O'Neill was lying,"_ John pointed out when Daniel took a figurative breath.

 _"I know he's not lying. It's me. Rodney's right. I'm scared. I'm too scared to even try. It's not that I don't want to. I just can't stand the thought of him having flashbacks while I'm ... you know."_ Something like that would tear Daniel's heart out, John imagined, finding it a valid fear. Not to mention, O'Neill could hurt Daniel if he started fighting; it wasn't like Daniel could be killed, but John didn't want him harmed, either. _"I just can't."_

 _"Then don't fuck him as a human, angel. Make it as different as possible. Fuck him in your ascended state first."_

Rodney's remarkable suggestion had Daniel lifting his head and goggling.

"You mean-"

"Come on, glowy tentacle sex! It would be hot!"

***

"Hey, Atlantis."

"Yes, my Bellator?"

"Where's Daniel?"

"He is with my Meredith and my Imperator. They are talking."

"Yeah, right."

"I do not speak falsehoods."

"I'm sorry. I've been saying that a lot lately ... doesn't seem to be helping any."

"If you refer to the Agapitos Daan, I believe you are mistaken."

"Nothing new about that."

"Rid yourself of self-pity, my Bellator. The Agapitos Daan considers your offer."

"He is? I mean, he does?"

"And seeks counsel."

"Oh, shit." _Shit shit shit._

***

"You know, John, you're not supposed to be able to do that yet. There's a learning curve that you and Rodney just keep blowing past." Daniel remarked, calming as he stood in John's and Rodney's embrace ... sharing so much more than just their bodies, but too human to give up skin contact completely.

His Atlantean Ascendants had already taught him a number of things that day, not the least of which gave Daniel some clarity regarding his right to say no. He didn't have to let Jack have his own way all the time. It was still something of a revelation.

"You want me to apologize?" John asked lazily, making no secret of the fact that he was basking in his and Rodney's presence, occasionally rubbing against them like a cat. Rodney grinned every time. It made Daniel smile. They were all three so skin hungry, so comforted by this primal touch, so honest in their need. "I wouldn't mean it, but I'll say it if you want to hear it," John murmured, his hands on the backs of their necks pulling their faces close to his. "I want to breathe you both in. I don't know how it's possible, but it's almost like standing in Starbuck's."

"It's all in your mind, you doof," Rodney actually giggled - _giggled_ \- provoking Daniel into laughing at them both. Loving them both. They were his _friends,_ on his side, in his corner, behind him all the way - more than even Sam or Teal'c, with their divided loyalties to Jack.

Trying to catch what turned into an unanticipated sob, part of him already grieving the thought of ever losing them ... Daniel didn't know he was crying until John and Rodney dried his tears with their fingers.

"Atlantis. Send the General to the mess hall, please. He might as well go get something to eat. I'm going to assume you notified Supreme Commander Thor that you brought O'Neill to ... visit."

"It has been done, my Meredith," Atlantis announced after a moment, absently assuring her Bellator that yes, there would be pie.

"Good. Thank you, dear," Rodney said, ascending them all to travel their City, something that just about killed Daniel with pride and satisfaction. He couldn't have chosen better for his Second; that Rodney proved so able was no surprise. Daniel thought he should have seen Rodney as his Second sooner - would have, if he hadn't been waiting around hoping Jack would grow to accept ascension.

He absolutely could not believe Jack now seriously wanted to ascend.

They emerged in their tower room, de-ascending onto the bed, Daniel in the middle. Bracketed by two strong male bodies, he felt very cherished. Sheltered. Deciding to just let himself have this, Daniel took a few shuddering breaths and relaxed in the arms of his friends.

***

It took Daniel about five minutes to fall asleep. Rodney gave it another ten before he looked at John over Daniel's head, lightly stroking John's upper arm and speaking silently.

 _"I'm gonna go talk to O'Neill. Take care of him?"_

 _"You know I will ... you sure that's a good idea?"_

Rodney wasn't, in fact, but he refused to let that stop him. Daniel's happiness was too important.

 _"He can't kill me,"_ he reminded John, who was regarding him with one eye scrunched closed while the other beautiful hazel eye peered at him doubtfully.

 _"Yeah, but he's still Jack O'Neill. Besides, what are you gonna say?"_ John wondered sleepily.

 _"You mean, after I tell him he's an asshole? I'm sure I'll think of something."_

 _"Uh-oh."_ John grinned at him then, humor lighting his lean face. _"Well, have fun, babe."_

Rodney was pretty sure his answering smile could outpower a naquadah generator. He loved when John called him babe, like he did Daniel's occasional 'baby's. It pretty much rocked his world, every time.

 _"Thanks, I will!"_ he said and confidently ascended.

***

Jack was sitting in a corner nook with his coffee and apple pie, wondering what the hell was wrong with Atlantis' personnel. There were about fifty people in the mess hall. A fair number of them sat alone, hunched over their food - if they even had any - and they looked more than a little hung over, conscientiously avoiding each other's eyes and cringing a little at any loud noises.

Atlantis asked him to remain quiet on the subject and suggested he serve himself, which Jack had done, not offended when nobody really paid any attention to him, let alone saluted. He could use some peace and quiet himself. He was still trying to figure out just where he'd fucked up with Daniel earlier, especially since he obviously couldn't depend on Daniel to simply tell him.

Admitting he was a little pissed off about the whole thing - he wouldn't willingly go to his knees for anybody else in the universe - Jack concentrated on picking chunks of apple from beneath the crust.

 _"Not bad pie,"_ he remarked to the City, having quickly grown accustomed to the idea that she was always listening. He could feel her hum deep down in his sore old bones.

Daniel could have hung around long enough to fix his knees, at least - so Jack whined to himself just before he was distracted.

Rodney McKay walked in, dressed in blue robes similar in style to the ones Daniel had worn on Vis Uban. Jack recognized them. McKay was still glowing as he strode into the room, bright eyes gleaming as he inspected its inhabitants.

"Here, now, what's all this?" McKay waved his hands around. Jack gasped as a bolt of warmth speared through him, soothing his aches and giving him a small buzz of energy. That everyone else felt it, too, became obvious when people sat up and started looking more alert. "Better? Now, stop worrying. No one gets penalized for being under the influence of alien tech, it's a get out of jail free card, remember? Besides, you're citizens of Atlantis first and minions of the SGC and the IOA second.

"Also, for the information of all citizens, Atlantis believes DADT is a violation of your civil rights as Atlanteans and she will not support enforcement of the policy. I remind potential gay-bashers and bigots that our City will see and hear what you do no matter where you do it and she will incarcerate you via transport beam until we can 'gate you to Earth. And we will. We have the power.

"So. Cheer up. Go forth and be happy in the knowledge that what happens in Atlantis stays in Atlantis," McKay finished grandly, sending out another little indiscriminate blast of power. Several people laughed. Everyone looked more relaxed.

Jack shook his head. Point made.

Or so he thought, until McKay started heading directly towards him, shaking his head.

"'Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.' Jack O'Neill is a gene carrier, too, which makes him an Atlantean now. Atlantis has spoken," McKay gave an exaggerated sigh, pulling up short and giving him an elaborate bow. "Oh, well, we can't pick our relatives, can we, Bellator O'Neill?"

Detoured by the sacred bean, McKay stopped at the coffeepot, gulped down half a cup of coffee and refilled his mug before he could tear himself away. Eventually making it to Jack's table, McKay sat beside him instead of across the table. McKay huddled over his coffee, too, making audible love to it, inhaling the fumes with a low breathy moan that bypassed Jack's ears for his dick.

Jack wondered if that's how McKay sounded in bed and he didn't want to wonder that.

"Atlantis showed me pictures-" he began, trying to wrong-foot the other man. McKay merely sprawled back in his seat - apparently channeling Sheppard - and brought his cup to his lips, his pink tongue lapping over the rim.

"I know what Atlantis showed you. Have fun watching?"

Jack flushed, damning himself, face getting hot as McKay succeeded in unbalancing him. McKay regarded him with speculative eyes. Brilliant, intelligent, clear blue eyes, piercing with expectations.

Jack always liked to exceed expectations. He leaned back and nudged his shoulder into McKay, keeping his voice low.

"You're a hot fuck, McKay. I never knew."

"Yeah, I noticed that, actually. Thanks for leaving me so many of Daniel's first times. Asshole."

Jack actually flinched, feeling McKay's almost silent words puffing over his ear, whispered in a hissing acidic tone that cut right through him along with McKay's desire to knock the shit out of him. McKay was half inclined to ascend Jack himself and kick his ass there, too - or so Atlantis tattled, telling Jack to take care with his reply and bear in mind his objective.

McKay didn't give him time to reply. He should have expected that, really.

"The thing is, I get why you react like you do. No, seriously, I do."

Just like that, they were no longer in the commissary. Atlantis transported them to one of the piers, where they could stroll 'outside' with nothing between them and space except Atlantis' excellent shields. At least, Jack hoped they were excellent, trying not to shudder at the idea of simply floating off into the galaxy, decompressing.

Or perhaps his sudden chill had more to do with something in McKay's voice. McKay held up one hand and waved it in front of them, blowing out a hard harsh breath.

"I haven't talked about this in years. I never talk about this. I was gang-raped at a frat party when I was seventeen. Mouth and ass. Granted, it wasn't an everyday thing for three months and my rapists probably smelled a lot better than yours, but I do have some basic understanding of what's been holding you back with Daniel."

Jack walked over to a railing and wished there was an ocean beneath him.

"And before you accuse Daniel of telling me, one, it's part of your complete service record, which I have seen, and two, Atlantis told me," McKay said from behind him.

Atlantis confirmed this was all true. Jack hadn't doubted it. It did occur to him to wonder how Atlantis knew. The City informed him she knew everything in the SGC's computers and Jack thought "of course you do."

"How'd you get past it?"

"I had an excellent therapist. Then, about three years after it happened, I fell in love with a sweet guy who gave me a first time worth remembering."

Turning to lean against the rail, Jack caught a fading smile on McKay's face. McKay looked at him searchingly, looked right _through_ him, eyes full of light.

"And I was too fundamentally stubborn to let a criminal act define me." McKay delivered his coup de grace unemotionally, judgment in his pale gaze. "More stubborn than some, apparently."

"I know I didn't handle it well, McKay. Didn't handle Daniel right, or the ... entire situation," Jack muttered tersely, feeling scalded again.

"All you ever had to do was try. Daniel would have gotten you past it if you'd tried. He could have reframed your responses, taught you how to appreciate that empty feeling deep inside and how good it feels to have it filled...

"You big dumbass."

Jack jerked, falling out of the state McKay's slow, hoarse words had been calling up in him, the surge of blood to his loins embarrassing him. He shrugged at McKay.

"I'm not opposed to that idea. Not any more."

"But Daniel is. _He's_ ... opposed. Think of it in terms of aversion therapy. He's conditioned himself to limit his interactions with you in very specific ways and he literally can't break through his own system of thought."

"You make it sound like brainwashing," Jack said a little bitterly.

"It is. I'm not blaming you. It's something Daniel basically did to himself and he'd be the first one to admit it. But, O'Neill, you need to understand it, that is, if you're serious about bottoming for Daniel. It isn't going to be something he can just jump right into with you. You'll have to desensitize him to the idea, just like he'll be desensitizing you. Hopefully. I'll tell you two things-" McKay gave him a sly slanted smirk "-straight up. You're going to have to woo Daniel into trying ... and John and I won't be giving him up unless he asks us to. Oh, wait, there's three. Atlantis will be watching you. The next time Daniel says no and you ignore him, you'll wake up in a containment cell."

"I didn't-!"

"You did. Don't do it again," Rodney McKay ordered then ascended, pouring his glowy self like water into the deck and vanishing. Left alone on the pier, a stricken Jack wandered back towards the railing and asked Atlantis for some time.

McKay had given him a lot to think about.

***

"Mmm," Daniel hummed, sliding contentedly into consciousness. Rodney was spooned into his backside, Rodney's arm resting heavily over his waist. John was backed into his front, lean body curving to fit warmly against him, which meant John's taut ass was snugged up against Daniel's groin. Daniel could feel Rodney's cock shift as it started to thicken and grow. His own cock hardened, poking at John.

This was _nice._

"Mmm-hmm," Rodney hummed back, rubbing his cock against Daniel's ass. "Best way to wake up ever."

Daniel ran his hand over John's chest, relishing the crinkling hair and the way small nipples pearled at his touch. Following a path of silkier hair, Daniel reached until he could cup his fingers under John's equally hairy balls. John welcomed his attentions, reaching behind him to grope his ass and pull him forward by the hip.

"Me three. Fuck me?" John whispered the invitation, pushing his buttocks into Daniel's very interested cock.

"I'd love to," Daniel allowed, pressing his open mouth against the fine-grained skin of John's upper back. _"Rodney, I want you in me."_

"By your command, my King," Rodney teased, moving Daniel's thigh to rest on John, effectively opening him. Daniel sighed out another soft moan, aroused by the vulnerability of his position, closing his eyes when Rodney tenderly stroked his crease.

"You're going to love this. Atlantis. Locate an unopened tube of personal lubricant in the infirmary stores, warm it to body temperature, and transport it to this location, please." Rodney held out his hand, palm up.

"Oh no you didn't," John said with some astonishment when the lube appeared in Rodney's hand with a tiny flash of white light.

"I know, it's a self-indulgent waste of power, but Atlantis has the power now, thanks to us, so why shouldn't we indulge, I say." Rodney pronounced grandly, deftly opening the seal and squirting the clear gel onto his fingers - one handed - before he dropped the tube between Daniel and John. "There you go. I'll have you know Atlantis would have beamed lube directly into your asses if I'd asked but I was afraid it might scare you."

By now, Daniel was hiding his face in John's back and laughing so hard he was snorting into John's skin. John was snickering, too, the notion plainly striking his funny bone.

"Gee, Rodney, you're so thoughtful," he managed between chuckles that escalated into helpless giggles, setting Daniel off - Daniel let out a graceless bray that startled Rodney into laughing, too.

"Hey, it would have been warmed up first," Rodney protested, lightly stroking his slick fingertip over Daniel's hole, spinning Daniel's amusement into freshened arousal. "And I would have warned you."

"Atlantis. Do it," John ordered suddenly, still giggling. He twitched violently in Daniel's arms, suddenly writhing backward trying to push his ass on Daniel's cock. "Oh, god! So warm! Daniel, you have to fuck me _now."_

Daniel reached for his cock; Rodney got there first, making sure he had the angle right.

"John, you'll hurt yourself," Daniel feared. John's slick pucker opened reluctantly over the head of his dick, tightly squeezing his sensitive flesh. "John," he warned, undone when Rodney fisted the base of his cock.

"God ... yes ... feels ... so ... uh, yes, Daniel ... please, just like this," John gasped, continuing to impale himself - then Daniel was half in and yelping at the slippery heat and pressure and Rodney's grip was the only thing keeping him from coming, especially when John continued to babble. "Fuck, Daniel, fuck, god, so good, so hard, so hot. I want more, I want more..."

"John, oh my god, shut up for a minute," Rodney whispered, moving so he had the use of both hands - one to hold back Daniel's orgasm and the other to loosen Daniel's hole. John was obviously getting off on being stretched open on Daniel's cock, but Daniel appreciated Rodney's efforts to make sure he was ready. Thing was, he didn't think he could wait much longer and remain corporeal.

"Rodney!" he called, shaking with his efforts not to thrust, not to come when Rodney turned loose of his cock.

"I know, sweetheart. Here I am," Rodney promised, thick cock finally pressing into him, the initial burn of Rodney's entry backing his arousal down enough to postpone his climax.

"Oh, yes," Daniel cried out, glad Rodney's grip on his hip was helping him be still. John was shivering, his ass clenching around Daniel's cock, and Daniel didn't know how they weren't shooting, didn't know, didn't know...

 _Now, now, now!_ his ready body demanded. Rodney pulled out a bit then shoved inside with one pushy stroke, sending him balls deep into John who started writhing like he was being electrocuted, mouth open on a soundless wail - _and still not coming_ \- obliterated with the need to come, both of them hanging right there on the edge, Rodney somehow holding them back.

"Watch and learn, angels," Rodney rasped out and ascended, still inside Daniel.

***

Atlantis, who'd been waiting for it, notified Supreme Commander Thor she was departing Lantean space, cautioned the citizens and then stepped into hyperspace for the relatively short hop to Dorandas.

Evan Lorne - who was sort of in the control chair, being bent over it for round three with Ronon - barely noticed, being entirely too preoccupied at the time.

***

"Odd people, the Tau'ri," Lya remarked to Teal'c and Thor, who were all standing around the bridge watching Samantha Carter methodically drum her fingers as the Daniel Jackson followed Atlantis into hyperspace.

"This is indeed true," the Asgard agreed. "Their capacity for self-deception is most astonishing."

"She has been troubled since Atlantis retrieved General O'Neill," Lya noted almost silently, pitching her voice for Thor's and Teal'c's ears only. "I do not understand. As a gene carrier, he can come to no harm in the City of the Fifth Race. Surely, that Atlantis has claimed him one of her own is a cause for celebration."

Teal'c suspected he knew very well why SamanthaCarter was not particularly pleased by O'Neill's absence. She likely hoped he and DanielJackson would fail to reconcile and O'Neill would turn to her at last. The constraints of stupid American Tau'ri military policies aside, she had never been what one might term supportive of that relationship - although she'd become superficially accepting. It was an attitude Teal'c disliked. There had been a time when he had wished she would turn her attention off O'Neill and onto him. Then again, there had been occasions he'd wished similarly for O'Neill and Daniel as well. Those urges, along with most of his attraction towards Samantha, had largely passed; his feelings for Samantha cooling with years-long exposure to her obsession with O'Neill. Teal'c cared deeply for her, but she no longer inspired his passions.

"I believe it to be a great honor," he answered Lya, keeping to himself any theories about SamanthaCarter's potential motivations.

"It pleases me to hear you say this, Citizen of Chulak," an unfamiliar feminine voice announced into the room, taking them aback. "I invite you to the City of the Fifth Race, Magistere Teal'c. Your friend Jack O'Neill desires your counsel. May I transport you?"

"While we're in hyperspace? You can't-" SamanthaCarter began and Teal'c attempted to silence her with the same hand gesture O'Neill had used earlier. "Teal'c, who-"

SamanthaCarter vanished in a flash of white light, momentarily startling Teal'c badly, then Thor elbowed him - just above the knee, and did not miss - although Teal'c barely felt it.

"She has been removed to a private cabin where she may access translations of Benin's Prophecies," Thor remarked blandly. Teal'c bowed his head.

"Indeed. I assume I have the privilege of addressing Matris Arxis Atlantis?" Teal'c asked in his very good Ancient.

"Oh, you are a well-spoken one. Yes, you do, Magistere Teal'c. Please be welcome within my walls."

"I would be honored, thank you," Teal'c said, bowing his farewell to Lya and Thor.

***

Atlantis had momentarily scared the crud out of Jack when she'd made the jump into hyperspace - she'd warned him, not fast enough for him to get back 'inside' - and the view from the pier was something Jack was going to remember for a long, long time.

Eventually, he'd decided to go to the Gateroom, reluctantly thinking he might as well see Weir and get that out of the way, although she seemed to have become pretty irrelevant in the grand scheme of current events.

He sighed, wishing he had Teal'c here to walk around Atlantis with him. He passed patrols of Marines who snapped off sharp salutes but didn't look particularly surprised by his presence - which is when it occurred to him that Atlantis must have reported he was in the City.

Atlantis confirmed this softly, guiding him to a transporter chamber. When he arrived near the Gateroom, he was startled again when Teal'c met him outside the door.

 _"Aw, thanks,"_ he thought at the City, meaning it.

 _"You are most welcome, my Bellator."_

"T-man! Good to see you!"

"O'Neill. How goes your reunion with DanielJackson?"

"Right now we're kind of in a holding pattern. I'm not giving up!" Jack protested to the doubtful eyebrow Teal'c shot him. "We're ... negotiating."

"I see," Teal'c said in that tone that suggested he didn't.

Jack wasn't sure he bought it either.

***

She'd started at the end and worked her way backwards - reverse engineering was what she did, after all - and had skimmed over all forty-two of the Ancient Benin's recorded prophecies.

Forty-two.

Samantha shook her head. Daniel probably found that amusing. She was too angry to find the humor. Locked in a featureless cabin, prevented from leaving by a force field of some type she'd never before encountered - it grabbed her like a hug every time she tried to leave then gently pushed her back inside, muffling her shouts - she'd ended up with little else to do but read.

She hadn't gotten any less angry, but she'd started to recognize how very small her own part in all this was and how selfish she'd been.

The first twenty or so prophecies she'd thought to dismiss, only to find herself lingering over them thoughtfully.

Unknown millions of years ago, Benin accurately described, despite his often flowery language, events she knew to have come to pass in several galaxies. Whatever else the Ancient was, he was dead on with his predicted history.

The Creation of Atlantis. The Alliance of the Four Races. The Alterans, the Ori, the Goa'uld, the Wraith, the Asurans, the Great Plague and Ascension. The decline of the Alliance. Heliopolis: its creation and destruction. All things she knew had turned out to be true, which meant she couldn't ignore the rest of Benin's prophecies.

Which meant Daniel Jackson likely was the Regestere Charus, the Beloved Ruler, the First One of the Fifth Race. Really likely. And when she thought about it, who else could it be?

Starting to gain a little perspective, Samantha admitted she was mostly mad at herself. It was time she quit thinking of Daniel as 'winning' - that whole concept did neither one of them any credit. She needed to behave like an adult.

If this was who Daniel was, then he'd paid for it, over and over. Paid with his life, over and over. Even once at her Replicator duplicate's - hands.

Samantha couldn't bear to think of that now, that Daniel had died looking at her face.

Re-reading Benin's words, hearing them spoken in Lya's softly pained but enormously proud voice ... now brought Samantha nothing but sadness.

***

The scattered shards of his consciousness slowly coalesced as Daniel pulled himself together and took back his physical form. _Holy Mother of God._ He felt like kissing Rodney's feet except he couldn't imagine moving. Ever. Again.

"You broke me," he rasped as Rodney and John de-ascended on either side of him, back in their previous position with him in the middle.

Daniel loved the middle. Softening cocks jerked as they slid free, leaving him weak and almost intolerably content.

"God _damn,_ Rodney," John groaned, making Rodney snicker into Daniel's back.

"Yes, yes," Rodney said lazily, happily, his mind singing _invulnerable!_ and glad of it. He'd never have to watch John die, never have to be told again of Daniel's passing. From where he - lay - that was the best part. Being able to make both of them come so spectacularly hard was a bonus and after all, he was a genius.

Hearing Rodney think, Daniel felt his eyes sting and couldn't help but smile.

"So, Rodney, you think Daniel should do Jack like that, huh?" John asked like he knew Daniel needed a distraction.

"Thanks for not calling him Jerk," he said before Rodney could speak, kissing the words into John's spine.

"He's still a general," John explained with a one-shouldered shrug and a quiet, satisfied sigh.

"Actually, he resigned."

"Oh, really. Huh. You'll have to ascend him first or it will kill him," Rodney said. Daniel could feel his grin and rolled over to see it, hand on John's hip urging him to turn, too, and spoon up behind him, which John did with another groan.

Rodney's eyes were bright and affectionate, looking at him like he'd hung the moon. Daniel tipped up his head and kissed Rodney deeply.

 _"Do you really think I should? Do either? I'm happy with you and John. It's not like I need-"_

 _"Danny."_ Rodney never called him that. _"You do need him. He's meant to be yours."_

"Rodney, no," he protested, ducking out of the kiss. He couldn't afford to believe that, for a number of reasons.

"Hey, doesn't mean you're going to stop being ours," Rodney informed him, hand warm on his jaw, tilting his head back up, tongue dragging over his jaw to his lips, dipping between them to savor his mouth. _"I did warn him."_

 _"You did?"_ Daniel hardly cared at this point.

Rodney smiled into their kiss and the sensation - both mental and physical - made Daniel giggle.

John's arm went around him, hand splaying over his chest. John's other hand - John's arm was trapped between them - palmed the curve of his ass and gave it a friendly squeeze.

"You're stuck with us now, _unless and until you decide otherwise,_ " John added in his head, knowing Daniel would hear, and of course, Daniel did, feeling so much closer to Rodney - and John - than he'd ever been to anyone in any of his lifetimes.

It occasionally still boggled Daniel's mind. From the outset, he'd trusted Rodney's judgment in ascending John, but now he was glad for purely selfish reasons. He _liked_ John, and thought he should have known there had to be something pretty amazing about the guy for Rodney to love John like he did. Once John Sheppard decided he was protecting you, he was protecting your ass. Period. Daniel loved being the recipient of that focus.

"That's good," Daniel said out loud, wanting John - and Rodney, and Atlantis - to hear him speak the words. "John, I'm glad you asked Rodney to ascend you. Thanks." It came out awkwardly while he was still trying to frame his thoughts, which were largely incoherent with gratitude and a certain relief. It wasn't like he thought they'd abandon him to Jack's mercies, such as they were, but he he'd never dreamed of such complete and unconditional acceptance, particularly from John Sheppard, whom for too long he'd seen as merely some kind of Jack-clone. Jack-lite, maybe.

John merely patted him, palmed his ass again, and yawned into his shoulder blade.

"You're welcome, King Daniel. Atlantis? Ship's status? _I always wanted to say that,_ " John's silent confession had them all snickering when Atlantis informed them they'd arrive at Dorandas within the half hour.

Give this up? Either one of them? Oh, no.

Jack would just have to adjust.

"Such a hardass," Rodney scolded him, licking under his chin and nibbling at his jawbone. Daniel's own hands were fondling Rodney on both sides, adoring the slack weight of Rodney's mostly limp penis and the excellent slope of Rodney's ass at the same time. "Have us both. I mean, all three of us. All four of us. You know what I mean. Have whatever makes you happy, sweetheart. That's all John and I want."

"Who knew you were such a romantic, my Meredith."

 _"Yes, well, Jerk will learn to share, one way or another."_

Daniel blinked, wondering what Jack's reaction to that conversation had been. Rodney reminded him Atlantis would show him if he so desired but didn't give him time to think about it.

 _"Never mind that. Atlantis asked me a question. After we finish the Wraith at Dorandas, do we return Atlantis to Lantea or do we take her to Earth? We could disarm every fucking body on the planet, you know. Of everything. Simultaneously. Down to their steakknives. There's plenty of ocean to park our Lady in. Somewhere in the Caribbean would be nice, or off Hawaii- Hey, actually, we could commute, Pegasus, Milky Way, Pegasus... That would be so cool!"_

John got hard so fast behind him that Daniel had to laugh - had to - full of overwhelming joy in the moment.

***

Jack and Teal'c had coffee with Elizabeth Weir and made some desultory conversation about recent events while carefully talking around the subjects of prophecies and how Atlantis had achieved full power - Atlantis had already told Jack how and Elizabeth plainly didn't want to go there any more than Jack himself did. Teal'c wore his most impassive of Jaffa First Prime faces, the one that made him look like he thought all the Tau'ri were scum. As Jack knew that wasn't true, he wondered why his big old buddy was so disapproving.

He wasn't going to ask, not that Teal'c ever needed his permission.

"Have you seen DanielJackson since his arrival, DoctorWeir?"

"Yes, when he and Rodney briefed us on their plan to imprison the Wraith inside the interspatial rift created when the Arcturus weapon exploded."

"You appear ... skeptical. Do you doubt their capabilities?" Jack felt his eyebrows go up. Teal'c sounded like he was prepared to level a staff weapon on Elizabeth if she did and Jack decided it was as well he didn't have one with him.

"It's an ambitious proposition," she temporized smoothly and Teal'c's breath hissed from his flared nostrils as if he smelled shit. Jack was halfway between amazed and laughing out loud, the City snickering right along with him. "But given what they've already accomplished and the Alliance Doctor Jackson has forged in his position as the Agapitos Daan, I have no reason to doubt," Elizabeth continued, lowering her head at Teal'c in a near-formal gesture of acquiescence, surprising Jack again.

Teal'c relaxed, his expression softening to slightly less severe following Elizabeth's acknowledgment.

"The term rendered in the prophecies is Regestere Charus."

"Atlantis sets her own terms, gentlemen, as well as her preferences."

There was a short silence as each of them considered this, then Teal'c spoke again.

"I received a transmission from Master Bra'tac shortly before we entered hyperspace. It seems the Goa'uld have disappeared. Those Jaffa who were still dependent on a prim'ta apparently had their immune systems healed upon its removal, and Jaffa throughout the galaxy are reporting they have seen no Goa'uld in well over a week," Teal'c advised them with lifted brow.

"Atlantis, what did Daniel do with them?" Jack asked impulsively, certain Daniel had done something and just as sure Atlantis would know.

"The Agapitos Daan and his Legiae Lux removed all Goa'uld symbiotes to their planet of origin and rendered them incapable of existing outside their home waters, thus incapable of implantation. Former hosts were offered life, mindwipe, or death. Many chose a peaceful death, unwilling to live on with or without their memories. Those who survive live on the surface of a Nox world under constant observation, as are the Goa'uld themselves, my Bellator," Atlantis informed them evenly.

Daniel and his army of light. Jack thought about having dismissed it as 'glowy business' and wanted to kick his own ass all over again.

"We should have been there," he found himself murmuring to Teal'c, ignoring Elizabeth in favor of looking down at his hands, slowly unclenching his fists. "I should have been with him."

"Indeed. We are here now, are we not?"

Jack wished he thought that was enough.

***

John let himself enjoy the idea of flying his City to Earth for extended vacations, taking up residence and disarming every person on Earth - there was a thrill in the notion that he allowed for a few sweet moments before he came back to reality and pictured people picking up sticks, rocks, and garrotes.

His arousal faded.

"Hmm, pessimist," Daniel charged quietly, reaching back to hold him, muscled arm firm across his torso. "You're probably right, but at least a lot of dying would stop. It wouldn't alter anybody's free will, just their methods of expressing it. There would be some peace."

John squeezed Daniel in turn, feeling the wistful longing underneath the words.

Rodney sighed. John reached over and stroked his arm, secretly dismayed when Rodney initially tensed.

"One galactic revolution at a time, my Agapitos Daan," Rodney said to Daniel, speaking just as quietly, obviously sorry he'd raised the subject on Atlantis' behalf. _"I know you're tired of war. Tired of death."_

 _"I am. I was. I'm not so tired anymore. You- both of you- you help."_

 _"I should think so,"_ Rodney thought with a grin John could hear. _"Atlantis brought Teal'c over. O'Neill wanted him... wait. Aren't we in hyperspace?_ Rodney's mind went oddly blank and John, who realized Rodney was deep in conversation with Atlantis, eavesdropped only long enough to hear the discussion was all kinds of technical and centered on the physics of Atlantis' transport beam.

Assuming Rodney was going to be absent for a while, John moved closer into Daniel's warm backside and let out his own sigh.

 _"What's Rodney's issue with me? And don't do the 'what do you mean' or 'what do you think it is' crap."_

Daniel shot him a tiny blast of frustration but didn't try to pretend any further lack of understanding.

 _"You just need time together without me in the middle. Much as I love the middle."_

John pressed his forehead into Daniel's back and hoped he and Rodney had made up a little for every time this man ever felt unwanted. He thought Daniel was right, but that didn't mean he wanted Daniel to leave.

"I do have ... glowy business ... to take care of. I need to greet the Ancients at Dorandas. We'll have ... terraforming to complete before the Wraith begin to arrive."

"Not without me," Rodney's tone was implacable as he sat up on the edge of the bed, back from wherever he'd been and frowning at Daniel, who'd raised up on one elbow to grab Rodney's hand.

"No, not without you. Rodney, I want to see Teal'c first. He has a decision to make. Spend some time with John before Atlantis needs him in the chair."

Rodney looked doubtful, opening and closing his mouth on the silent protest that was raging in his head. John tried not to feel hurt - failed - and regretted it when Rodney vanished in a flash of white light.

Daniel sat up and looked at him.

"What are you waiting for? Go after him!"

"He doesn't want to be alone with me!"

"You dumbass," Daniel's hand fisted in his hair and Daniel gave his head a hard shake. _"He thinks you don't really want to be alone with him unless he's ascended. He thinks you don't want him! Physically! Go change his mind!"_

"Well, who's the dumbass now?" John asked and ascended.

***

 _"Will you not then follow your own counsel and allow your Bellator a chance to change your mind, my Agapitos Daan?"_

"I haven't decided, and he doesn't need you to plead his case. I don't need you to plead his case, Atlantis," Daniel replied irritably, unwilling to feel pushed. He would settle things with Jack in his own good time, provided Jack was even still interested. Could be Jack had come to his senses and was even now thanking heavens for his narrow escape.

 _"You do your Bellator much disservice. You do not trust his feelings for you."_

"His feelings, and mine, are our business."

 _"Charus meus."_ Mental arms were going around him, the warmth and light of the City's core self as alive as he was, holding him the way he barely remembered his mother holding him, down to the remembered scent of her hair. _"Your interests are my business. Do not ask me not to care."_

 _"You have to let **us** work it out."_

 _"As you wish, but do not doubt he loves."_

That metaphysical embrace lightened and Atlantis distanced herself in Daniel's mind, granting him the autonomy he'd requested - just as he arrived at the Gateroom and almost walked into Elizabeth Weir, Teal'c, and Jack.

"DanielJackson," Teal'c intoned, catching his upper arms. "It is good to see you."

Until Teal'c grabbed him, Daniel hadn't realized how much he'd missed his friend. He squeezed Teal'c's arms in turn.

"Teal'c. I was hoping to speak with you. Jack, Elizabeth," he nodded at them politely as he and Teal'c released each other.

"Oh, no you don't. You don't get to ascend anybody else until you ascend me." Jack's outrageous demand left Daniel open-mouthed and blinking. It wasn't much comfort that Teal'c and Elizabeth looked equally gobsmacked. "Hey, I know what the prophecies say."

"You've lost your damned mind."

"No. I found it. Just barely in time, always late to the party, I got that part, okay? But not too late, god willing." Jack was pulling him out of Teal'c's grasp and wrapping him up in one of Jack's Spacemonkey hugs, Jack's big hand warm on the back of his head. "It is good to see you, Danny," Jack said, deliberately echoing Teal'c's earlier words. "I miss you when you're not with me."

"Jack!" Daniel stiffened, shocked to hear Jack allude so openly to their relationship.

"No more hiding, Daniel. I resigned, remember? Citizen of Atlantis, now."

"Jack."

"Daniel."

Jack was giving him that irresistible bright-eyed grin, pulling back and patting him on both cheeks. Daniel had about enough presence of mind to think _oh, shit!_ before Jack kissed him full on the mouth, right there in the Gateroom, in plain sight.

He jumped backward.

"What are you doing?"

"Throwing down a gauntlet, Danny-boy, throwing down a gauntlet. I can be enlightened twenty-first century man, too, you know," Jack declared proudly, pounding his chest with a fist.

"You can?" This came bubbling out of Elizabeth Weir, provoking Teal'c into an indelicate but amused snort and Daniel into startled laughter. Jack winked at him broadly and bounced on his heels.

"Just watch me," Jack said, eyes dark with intent as he locked his gaze on Daniel. "You'll see."

***

 _"Rodney, please come here. I know you can hear me."_

Rodney could, too. He was completely unable to ignore John's entreaty. De-ascending with some reluctance, he resisted the urge to arrive dressed, part of his brain reminding him John had already seen him naked - in more ways than one - so there was no point in hiding behind clothes now.

Que sera, sera, he thought rather fatalistically. John, who'd de-ascended in Rodney's own room before calling him, was sitting naked on the edge of Rodney's bed with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. Rodney took a similar position a couple of feet away - a subconsciously Daniel-sized space - and watched John. John scrubbed his hands through his hair and glared at him sideways.

"Where do you get this stupid idea that I don't want your body?"

"What?" Rodney replied, feeling as stupid as John had just accused, half-tempted to ascend again and leave.

"Don't even think about it," John ordered. He was suddenly right next to Rodney, one hand covering the fist Rodney had clenched full of blanket. Rodney's brain amped up the signal to noise ratio until all he could hear were his own fears, strangling his ability to think or dissemble, instincts fighting emotion.

 _"You- I don't- don't- look at you, John. You and Daniel- you're ... ideal humans. I'm ... not. Why would you even- you don't have to- I don't expect-"_

"You damned well should!"

John was attacking him? No, John was pushing him down on his mattress and climbing on top of him, holding his wrists beside his head, John's grip painful, John flattening him with weight and breath and heat and skin and hair and a rigid erection that prodded fiercely at his own. John felt so good Rodney almost couldn't stand it, the pleasure searing his flesh from his bones. Losing his internal grip on his own energies, he would have ascended himself involuntarily but John restrained him there, too, pinning him to his shuddering body, wracked and helpless with his sudden fierce arousal.

 _"John?"_ Rodney's mind called, full of air and light when John's teeth closed on his jaw, drowning in John's answering flood of love and lust and powerful hunger.

 _"You're mine, Rodney, just like I'm yours. **Have** expectations of me. I want you to. I want you. I want you so much. Don't you want me? Don't you want to touch me?"_

"John!" Rodney cried out again, responding to the longing in that plea, tugging at John's grasp, dying to have his hands free. John released him with a pang he could feel and he wasted no time filling his hands with John's smooth skin, tracing long paths from neck to ass and back again, pressing John against him to feel that long body undulate.

John groaned his appreciation into the side of Rodney's neck, just under his ear, the vibrations from the harsh sound setting fires along Rodney's spine and whiting out his brain.

 _"John please need you always need you love you always always have-"_

 _"God, I love you,"_ John swore in Rodney's mind and bit him, detonating his nerves.

***

They ended up in the commissary. Jack was surprised, not. Elizabeth had gone to check on the labs, leaving him, Teal'c, and Daniel to go through the now-attended serving line. Jack wasn't particularly hungry - it still felt like he was dancing on a knife's blade where Daniel was concerned and his stomach was a little tense - but he didn't begrudge the full meals Teal'c and Daniel were served and he did his best to let them eat uninterrupted.

Daniel finished his coffee, seeming distant and distracted, a half-smile tilting one corner of his mouth as he listened inside himself instead of around him. Still wearing Abydonian robes, he looked like a complete stranger and at the same time, more like himself than Jack had seen him in over ten years.

"You hear the voice of the Matris Arxis, DanielJackson?" Teal'c did manage to surprise Jack when he asked - in Ancient.

"The Mother City ... she likes that, Teal'c. She hopes you'll make a home here. Don't worry, Jack," Daniel gave Teal'c and Jack a pleased grin that warmed Jack up from the inside out. "She likes you, too."

"No accounting for taste, huh, Dannyboy," Jack said, returning a smile before Daniel's faded, rewarded when Daniel's face brightened again.

He could do woo, and he could do it a hell of a lot more subtly than Rodney McKay.

"Has she offered you a home as well, Daniel?" Teal'c asked very gently, visibly delighted when Daniel turned that smile on him.

"Oh, yes. Atlantis says she belongs to the Fifth Race, now, and we belong to her. She's waited a long time for us to deserve her."

"Atlantis told me she wants all the gene carriers to come home," Jack announced, reminded.

Daniel frowned into his empty mug before setting it down.

"Hey, Atlantis?" he called out softly. Jack refused to be shocked when Daniel's mug refilled with a small flash of white light. "Gratius meus, Mati."

"You are welcome, my Agapitos Daan."

Daniel sucked down half the cup before bestirring himself to answer Jack.

"To clarify, she wants to go to the First World and fetch them. Along with anybody else who might like to come out here to Pegasus and homestead. This galaxy needs the infusion of genetic diversity from the First World."

 _Oh, shit,_ Jack thought, considering implications. Daniel was talking about full public disclosure. Asking for immigrants. Pushing the Tau'ri into the galactic community, now that it was going to be as safe as it could ever get.

"You wouldn't hide the City and do it covertly."

"It would be easier than you might think. Between her shields and cloaks she'd never be noticed. Earth has a lot of open ocean." Daniel shrugged. "I suppose, for that matter, it would be easier to transport all the gene-carriers from orbit."

"That might be kinda noticeable," Jack replied slowly, wondering if he should be worried Atlantis had some kind of metaphorical bit in her teeth. She reminded him sharply - silently - that she would go nowhere without the approval of her Meredith, her Imperator, and the Agapitos Daan, and those decisions had yet to be made.

"Atlantis favors total disarmament of all Tau'ri on the planet first, of course."

Daniel's calm announcement won him two raised eyebrows from Teal'c and a coughing jag from Jack, who choked when Atlantis showed him Rodney McKay saying _"down to their steakknives."_ After a reflexive Republican pry-my-gun-from-my-cold-dead-fingers moment, he thought about all the ways people could kill each other bare-handed and wondered how much actual difference it would make.

"You and John," Daniel said, shaking his head. "I don't know. I haven't decided. I'm not ... exactly sure of my ethics. I keep thinking about ... Moscow."

"Dreams teach," Jack nodded. "Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Yadda."

Teal'c also inclined his head. The three of them had discussed Daniel's 'dream' years ago. Jack was sure Teal'c remembered the details as clearly as he did.

"Rodney suggested I table a decision until after the Wraith are contained."

"Good idea," Jack forced himself to say, discovering an intense dislike of the way Sheppard's and McKay's given names just rolled so trippingly off Daniel's tongue.

Daniel's eyes narrowed as he looked at Jack and Jack did his best to appear unconcerned, quite aware he wasn't fooling anybody, least of all Daniel. Atlantis was all too willing to screen more mental pictures, offering Jack glimpses of Daniel lying between Sheppard and McKay, fucking and being fucked, coming so hard he passed out and went glowy thanks to that kinky bastard McKay. Ascended sex, go figure.

Damned skippy he was jealous.

Teal'c cleared his throat and startled Jack out of staring into Daniel's beautiful eyes. Blinking, Jack shifted in his seat, wondered when he'd gotten hard, and cursed himself all over again for losing what he'd had.

***

Rodney was killing John with panting gasps and whispered oh oh ohs as John moved, fucking Rodney in that euphoric rhythm between forever and not possibly long enough ... worshipping at the altar of Rodney's perfect ass, sliding his cock in and out of slippery - courtesy of their City - gripping heat that clenched at his length like Rodney meant to keep him inside until the very end of time.

Sitting on his heels with Rodney's ass on his thighs and Rodney's knees crooked over his elbows, John watched the hypnotic in and out glide of his slick red cock spearing into Rodney and zoned on the noises Rodney kept making. Carefully gauging their volume and intensity along with his angle of entry, John waited for whimpers to turn into hoarse cries and then into sobbing entreaties before he ascended, taking Rodney like Rodney'd taken Daniel - and Daniel had subsequently taken him - showing Rodney how fucking fucking good it felt, reveling in their climax when Rodney wailed and started coming, hard spasms taking John's consciousness apart until Rodney finally blacked out.

When John thought about it later, he decided he'd made his point clear. Rodney could have no further doubts about how much - and in how many ways - John wanted him.

End Part One. Part Two is [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/181478)


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